Alyona

Alyona, Alika and Katya dream of love and friendship, but most of all of leaving Putin’s Russia. When the war against Ukraine breaks out, it becomes harder for the three young women to leave the vast country in the East, but also even more unbearable to stay. So one has left for Georgia, another for Spain, while the third stays behind in Russia. Their generation does not believe that political engagement changes anything. Instead, they show their resistance by living a modern and more Western life, where gender, sexuality, pop music and identity issues are vital. Set at night in cars, apartments and backyards, Sybilla Tuxen’s dark and artistically uncompromising debut film tells the story of a rebellious yet resigned section of Russian youth on the fringes of established society.

When Ava and Julien discover that their new neighbors, Mackenzie and Theo, are swingers, they decide to try out the lifestyle in an effort to spice up their failing marriage. But after Theo turns up dead, Ava becomes the prime suspect in his murder. Desperate to prove her innocence, she searches for the truth even as her own husband comes to distrust her. Ava’s search leads her into the hidden world of swingers, where she encounters jealousy, lies and deceit, before uncovering a secret that’s been living closer to home than she ever realized.

A young man must prove his innocence when his fiancee and infant son go missing. As unexplainable evidence mounts against him, he starts to realize that someone is trying to frame him.