Like so many Russian youths in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Zhanna and Lyosha became heroin addicts. Now, they're in the mid-30s and belong to the few surviving junkies of the post-Perestroika generation. They live with Lyosha's mother in a very confined space. Lyosha dreams of a normal life, while Zhanna has no illusions about the future. The camera observes their daily lives and rarely leaves the small tower block in St Petersburg. In her documentary KammerspielWENN ES BLENDET, ÖFFNE DIE AUGEN (When It Blinds, Open Your Eyes,Austria 2014), Ivette Löcker places Zhanna and Lyosha’s relationship in the forefront, not their addiction, its causes or its consequences. She is less interested in physical decay than in signs of vitality, gestures of intimacy and responsibility, jokes and sarcastic comments - moments of love, despite all the adversities.(bik) (10.3.)
