Ayka


Ayka is a 2018 drama film directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. At Cannes, Samal Yeslyamova won the award for Best Actress. It was selected as the Kazakhstani entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, making the December shortlist. The film was produced under the working title My Little One.

Plot

A young Kyrgyz woman named Ayka lives and illegally works in Moscow. After giving birth to a baby she escapes from the hospital abandoning a newborn child. She suffers from malaise and post-pregnancy complications. Ayka borrowed money she couldn't afford from dangerous men to open a clothing factory and now struggles to earn enough to pay her debts. She's desperate for any job but expired work permit, proves nearly impossible to her get an employment. At an underground processing facility she plucking a chicken but workers are not paid. At cafeteria, where Ayka worked before labor she's been replaced by another girl. She lost job as a waitress being late for an interview due to bleeding and general weakness. Finally, she finds a job as a cleaner in a veterinary clinic. Also film demonstrates terrible living conditions in illegal hostel where migrants sleep in constant fear of deportation.
Creditors find Ayka and demand they money, threatening to cut off her sister’s fingers in Kyrgyzstan. During one of the meetings, she confesses that she recently give birth to a baby, specifying that she became pregnant as a result of rape. They offer to take child as price to settle her debts. At the same time, her maternal instinct awakens and she begins searching for a child, after a while she finds her son at the maternity ward. The picture ends with a scene in which Ayka breastfeeding her baby.

Cast