Tragicomedy

Alisa (Mariya Shalayeva) lives on the sea coast together with her crack-brained granny and mother regularly inviting touring seamen to their place. There is nothing more boring, than to live in the provincial seaside city. The only place of interest in it - the poster hanging near the entertainment center “We`ll make Your dreams to come true. Guaranteed”. And the girl`s dreams indeed start to come true. For instance, at last she moves to Moscow. The unexpected disappointment meets Alisa in the megapolis. In despair she decides to jump from the bridge into the Moscow-river, but fortunately the stranger (Evgeniy Tsiganov) leaves her behind. The girl saves his life and falls in love with him. Now her moving to Moscow really has sense. But life is not so easy…

“The Mermaid” by Anna Melikyan received the award for the best direction on the prestige Sundance Film Festival. It seems, this charming story could get ahead of the famous “Juno” awarded by Oscar. Among the main summands of film success are: cut in a quite dynamic manner, unexpected courses (for example interesting way of road big boards usage) and clear plot. And, undoubtedly, the talented play of Evgeniy Tsiganov and Mariya Shalayeva is no less important contribution to the film. Mariya was also awarded in Russia (“Nika” and “ Kinotavr”), that is quite unusual for our country, taking into consideration the her young age. Inspired by the up-to-date reality the film is fascinating and tragicomic. “The Mermaid” commonly wins the sympathy both of audience and critics.

Trailer:

Directed by:

Anna Melikyan

Cast:

Mariya Shalayeva, Evgeniy Tsiganov, Anastasiya Dontsova, Natalya Rychkova, Igor Savochkin, Irina Skrinnichenko, Veronika Skugina, Mariya Sokova, Igor Yatsko

Production:

Central Partnership, Russia, 2007

Feature:

Adventure, Tragicomedy

Duration:

114 min.