It's not often when your debut feature not only gets in the festival circuit, but is also officially a student project.
After seeing it, you would never see this as at. Firstly, it's beautifully shot. There's a lot of fixed wide shots and it gave a great scale to the story even though most of the film is set inside a high-rise building.
As for the story and ideas, it felt topical and there was an noticeable influence to Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, who is known for having a dystopian look with a dialogue close to a black comedy.
Leading the way was Ioana Iacob, who did a great job carrying this film. While there is a solid ensemble, Iacob showed great authority in her role and felt very measured.
What I got out of it what was a social satire that shows the power of paranoia and fear.
Not only it is really well shot, there's a haunting score to it as well.
It commits to its ideas and gives some sequences that certainly reflect moments that most of us will have experienced.
Some bits to get repetitive, but for what it was, this was pretty impressive. They made the most of its small budget, has interesting ideas and managed to get a very capable cast that utilised what was given to them.
This is a strong debut from Sinelnikova and her team and I hope this has given everyone involved the foundation for a major breakthrough into the industry.
