Russia (bbabo.net), - At the 72nd International Film Festival in Berlin, the premiere of Mikhail Borodin's film "Products 24" (international title "Convenience Store") took place. Previously, the tape was reported that it was included in the Panorama program of the Berlinale and that the plot is based on the famous "case of the Golyanov slaves" of 2012 - when migrants from Central Asia were kept in inhuman conditions and forced to work.

It was also known that one of the real participants in that story, Bakiya Kasimova, starred in the film in a small episode - she played a girl who is trying to find a job in the capital. After watching it, it became clear that it was not in vain that the film was supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Kinoprime Foundation for the Development of Contemporary Cinema, and the European Film Support Fund Eurimages. Because everything told in it goes far beyond the one case of Asian migrants and concerns the whole world.

... Behind the curtain in a regular grocery store that is open 24 hours a day, a marriage ceremony is taking place. The bride is wearing a scarf of an alarming orange color, the imam's prayer is so long that it seems it will never end. Young - a guy and a girl from Uzbekistan - are still children, but the owner of the store, Zhanna, believes that children should not be born in sin. At the Berlinale, at the film market, Russia presents the series "Identification" - it shows a Kyrgyz wedding, however, the bride is Russian. Also - a strange action, and also does not end with anything good. But back to the back rooms of the 24-hour grocery store. The bride - Muhabbat - is pregnant, she is about to have a second child. After the "ceremony" she will take off her orange headscarf, put on a red uniform and go to serve customers - no time off is allowed on the wedding day. She will immediately lose money from an alcoholic whose "pipes are on fire", but Muhabbat is used to an unfair and joyless life.

But Zhanna's business is going well. She thanked the mobile imam. Then Muhabbat will promise gifts. Jeanne has no children of her own. But there are "servants" - migrants, even more than necessary. She uses the situation as she needs, knowing that her compatriots really need money. It would seem that the feudal system is in the distant past, in fact, here it is - slavery of the 21st century.

People do not think or do not want to understand what is happening behind the curtain. They see the front of the store where they buy everything they need. And they don’t try to figure out why the saleswomen have such haggard, unkind faces, and their eyes are hunted. Customers do not care who and how prepares food for them. But here - nearby - and the curtain is also half-covered - Jeanne's eldest son sits and sorts out plastic bags, throwing them on the floor. Then they put bread in them. The boy's childhood passes in the backyard of a grocery store, whose employees spend the night right there, on the floor in a cramped room side, and in the morning, having somehow washed up (there is one shower for everyone), they go to work. The brother of the baby, who will soon be born, will have a fate a little better. But Jeanne decides to take the children away from Mukhabbat and bring them up with the help of other "slaves" in the apartment where she herself lives, as her own sons. Money allows her to do everything, the police are bought. She does not give documents to her wards, and they have nowhere to go. And then Muhabbat decides to defend justice...

Yes, there are scenes of violence in the film, although the director tries to get by in every sense with little bloodshed. Just a couple of episodes of increased cruelty, watching them is unbearable. It is better to fence yourself off, at least with a mental "curtain", as the majority does. But Borodin is also trying to make a picturesque canvas out of what is happening - a fresco that tells about the life of the suffering and torturing. I would like to fix some fragments in the form of freeze-frames, and this could be an exhibition of paintings.

bbabo.Net