„Seven years ago, I was here in Berlin performing at the Schaubühne and seven years later I’m standing introducing my first feature film,” thats how the young filmmaker and actor Alexander Gorchilin introduced his film Kislota (Acid) at the Berlinale 69 in section Panorama.

Switching Lightning, freighting scenes, a flooded apartment, a toilet in the middle of the room, Vanya naked jumps to his death off a balcony. ‘If you want to jump, jump,’ Pete had told him. Before.

The young director Gorchilin answered regarding the domination of the fatherless characters: “its a common phenomena in Russia that children are fatherless, and the father is either in prison, out of the country or died.”

The movie’s crisp finish underscores the characters’ suspension in their sterile landscape. Their pristine and beautiful bodies are likened to the sculptures of Acid’s resident artist. Through him, we learn the meaning of the eponymous substance (not, in fact, the drug but the corrosive liquid). He plunges his sculptures in acid baths and in the process, they become art. It is unclear precisely what the galvanizing thought is, but after witnessing the artist, the protagonists become fixated on corroding themselves with the substance. It is a device that makes for gruesome bouts of tension, twisted assaults on the senses and ultimately a little perplextion.

On one side Gorchilin tries to point on the families by the way they look towards their kids, weak, indiscretion, they don’t assume their responsibilities. But on the other hand and according to his hero “maybe the problem is that we don’t have problems”. The content points the finger at the youth themselves, leaves clear gaps in his story, forcing his audience to play catch up or get lost.

Prolonging the events and inventing them was noticeable among the means of the film by the young director. The film ends several times before the final end.

Last and not least the young director wishes that his film will be screened in Russia and has support since the fascist film crows is the only dominate back home.

Text by Dyaa