Love, beauty, and a sense of humor help me get through the toughest times. When reality crashes apart, it is art that becomes most essential—it reminds us who we are, giving us hope and energy to go forward.
The beating heart of my stories are strong women. They fight, they make mistakes, and they are not afraid of seeking their own path, even if the world says, “Don’t you dare!”.
I see this world as a fairy tale—sometimes dark, sometimes absurd, but always full of wonders. Through this lens, I explore reality because the language of fairy tales makes it easier to speak of what matters the most.
My films are stories of strength, vulnerability, and the magic of everyday life. They are about women who change the world around them, and the art being not a luxury but the salvation.
LOGLINE, THEME & GENRE
Ada's human life, with its fears, complexes, and love, ends at the beginning of the lockdown, being replaced by a fairy tale, frightening from the outside view, but for Ada, beautiful. To complete the transfer from the mundane world to the mysterious, she needs to turn her beloved husband into a vampire, too. But for now, Ada has no idea how to do this without accidentally taking his life.
The film's big theme is connecting with yourself. Reuniting with your family. When the protagonists deserve to find their true selves, their place in the world, and fight for what they have.
I see Everlasting Love as a mystic tale set in the arthouse genre, with the addition of vampires and comedy.
My personal life became the backbone for the story
For years, I've been collecting stories from my marriage, simultaneously observing how relationships around me fell apart while mine somehow survived. Looking back at our path, it kinda feels like immortality.
I want the audience to laugh with me at the cute mutual silliness that keeps two people together despite everything because love isn’t about grand gestures; sometimes, it’s about knowing when to hug, when to fight, or when to let the absurd carry you on.
intention
Everlasting Love protagonists simply refuse to let anything—time, chaos, unexpected events, or death—stand in the way of their relationship.
It's a celebration of stubborn, ridiculous, eternal devotion.
The story unfolds slowly, with minimal dialogue, relying on physical comedy that captures the strange, instinctive language between long-term partners. The entire film is set in a single apartment.
As the protagonist sharpens her “vampire skills,” the color red gradually takes over the screen, mirroring her transformation. Meanwhile, houseplants quietly overrun the space, turning it into a surreal, fairytale-like garden.
There is a notable lack of comedy and irony on the screen today. And I believe that when the world is drowning, the best thing to do is give people a reason to smile. Everlasting Love is my way of reminding the audience that laughter is its own kind of survival.
This film is for couples like us—immigrants, expats, anyone in a relationship who knows it's never about perfection but keeping the course, or those longing for love.
synopsis
Ada and Evgeny are a cute couple of expats living their mundane lives in a small top-floor apartment. Their peaceful nest turns into a mystic fairy tale, the day Ada wakes up turned.
Feeling how different she senses the world, how her needs and habits change, Ada realizes there are two options for their future: either turn her beloved into a vampire so they can be together forever, or accidentally kill him.
Out of love, she chooses to make him a part of her new world, with the only obstacle that she has no idea how to do it.
Together, they dig into a pile of vampire books, pairing the reading with
watching films. But no matter what they try, nothing works; he remains
human, and she remains dangerously hungry.
Ada's needs and their home plants are growing simultaneously, turning the space into a dark garden filled with all the neighbors she’s eaten.
Evgeny isn't sure anymore if he wants to be turned at all and asks Ada to accept a future where she must watch him die.
All hope sucked out. They both seem to bear the fact that their road will eventually go apart.
Ada feels like she can't hold back her vampire nature and goes to kill Evgeny. He seems to be very obedient. The fingernails on her right hand grow, and she pierces the vein on his wrist from where she starts to drink. They’re caught in a slow, spinning dance of death and eternal life.
By letting go of control, all of a sudden, they discover that vampire transformation happens not through conscious actions but with unavoidable necessity.
TREATMENT
The story sets its beginning at some unspecified lockdown, with a reference to the Seven Days of Creation. The LADY ALMIGHTY walks on the empty streets, watching mundane life hidden behind the windows. The scenes she sees resemble biblical mythology. And the LADY ALMIGHTY formed a vampire of the drunk girl on the subway car seat, and bit into her neck the venom of life; and woman became an immortal soul.
And the LADY ALMIGHTY planted a garden southward in Europe; and there she watches the woman whom she had formed.
EVGENY keeps his daily routine of preparing breakfast. ADA refuses to eat but instead observes how her husband enjoys his meal. There are two fried eggs and one sausage on EVGENY's plate. He picks up the sausage with his fork and turns it upside down, forming the sad smile of it. He also points out that if she once again came up with some new diet, she should take care of the supplies because he already did the grocery shopping based on what normal people eat.
The daily routine goes on. ADA and EVGENY are hanging out washed clothes to dry. ADA protects herself from the sunlight by covering top to toe with a hat, sunglasses, long-sleeve pajamas, and rubber gloves.
The day comes to an end. ADA and EVGENY are playing "Who am I?" sitting on their bed. On her piece of paper is written "Dr. Faustus" on his "Juliette." EVGENY asks her, "Am I alive?" She responds, "Not for long."
The night comes, but ADA can't fall asleep — she thinks she smells something. She sniffs the bed first, then herself, then EVGENY. She gets up. She comes out of the bedroom and starts sniffing the whole apartment. ADA looks into the living room, sniffs the dirt in the potted plants. In the kitchen, she checks the fridge and finds something rotten. But it's not what she smells.
Leaving the fridge open, ADA finds the garlic on the wall there and realizes this is the
stinky source. ADA first looks at the string of garlic bulbs, contemplating them, then wincing at the smell. She picks up a fork from a kitchen drawer, but changes her mind and puts it back. She searches for something in a large jar of big spoons and spatulas and picks up some wooden tongs. ADA hooks the string of garlic with the tongs and wants to throw it in the garbage bin, opens the cabinet door under the sink, but hesitates for a moment and changes her mind. Instead, ADA takes a plastic container from another cabinet, puts the garlic in there, and only then, throws it in the garbage bin. On her way back, she sees the fridge open, goes back to the bin, removes the container, and takes it to the fridge.
ADA puts the container in the fridge, but again changes her mind and opens the freezer. The freezer drawer isn't closing well, so ADA starts to try to force it again and again, doing it very loud until it closes, trapping her thumb in the process.
ADA swears. Then she puts her thumb in her mouth and sucks it like a baby.
ADA seems to be changed in her actions. A shadow of anger flashes through her face when she watches her husband shaving. EVGENY points out that she should stop starving and drop that new diet.
The doorbell rings. This is the mailman who brought some deliveries. ADA
invites him in, and in a few moments, she sits with an expression of joy on her face.
ADA realizes she is a vampire, but she has no idea how or why she became one. And she doesn't seem to care much about the fact. What she really cares about is that she puts EVGENY's life in danger. Because being a vampire means she either eats her husband accidentally or outlives him eventually. Ada is not okay with either. So she makes a few orders from the library and online bookstore, including all the vampire books she could find. And they, with EVGENY, begin to experiment on turning him into a vampire, too.
EVGENY is up to try all that nonsense because he strongly believes you need to work on your relationship on a daily basis. She claims she is a vampire, so what? For so many years of marriage, they've been through worse. Besides, not all people are nice, so if she is telling the truth, they may be able to bring some balance to nature.
So he goes to sleep, not even taking his clothes and shoes off, and she goes back to her research by reading and watching films, hoping to find a working way among useless and life-endangering. After reading a passage in the book, ADA decides to do some chemical experiments. Unfortunately, she can't find any silver among her jewelry pieces and complains about being broke.
At the same time, ADA is constantly starving for blood. It is becoming increasingly difficult for her to control her appetite. The number of neighbors in the building is starting to run out. She takes her meal so carelessly, even taking some victims to the bedroom and consuming their blood while EVGENY sleeps.
Evgeny lets her in. She approaches a bench and flops down on it. When the red scarf around her neck touches the wall, it resembles Dracula's collar. After sitting there for a while, ADA slowly gets up and starts dancing. The light around her turns red. Suddenly, the daylight outside the window turns into darkness. The plants that have now filled the apartment top to bottom, turning it into a jungle, cast long, bizarre shadows.
In a fit of dance passion, ADA takes off her clothes and throws them on the floor. She jumps desperately to the music. Red confetti is falling from the ceiling, resembling splashes of blood.
Finally, tired of dancing, ADA lies on the floor. Houseplant shadows, like tattoos, crawl over ADA, up her arms, and from her chest to her neck. The closer those shadows crawl, the darker it gets around. The shadows seem to strangle ADA, up to the moment when everything plunges into darkness.
Accepting the truth, ADA walks from room to room, collecting vampire novels she has been carelessly spreading across the apartment for the last few days. She puts those books in the box. When the box gets full, ADA drags it along the floor to the terrace door. On the terrace, she drags a huge metal barbecue bowl in the center. Then, in the empty bowl, she puts the first book, spreads some alcohol from the bottle
on top, and lights it up. The book starts burning, and ADA, one by one, gives the rest of her vampire collection to the fire.
They are in separate rooms, EVGENY on the couch in the living room and ADA on the bedroom floor. There is a vinyl player on the shelf, and it's playing the music from an old record. EVGENY holds a guitar in his hands, and suddenly, he begins to touch the strings and play along with the song. The expression on his face is mournful. ADA hears the music, and suddenly, her gaze changes from detached to carnivorous.
The glamorous, shiny red wave shimmers under her skin. She makes slow, kinda dancing gestures with her hands, looking toward the room where EVGENY plays. Obediently, he gets up, and she does too. They are stepping toward each other.
EVGENY notices a change in ADA's hair tips; they turn from ginger to scarlet. The fingernails on her right hand begin to grow. Before he understands why it happens, she punctures his wrist and starts to drink his blood.
They spin in a slow, mysterious dance in which EVGENY dies slowly. But before the last of his blood drop sucked, with the last of his strength, EVGENY bites ADA's neck.
He drinks her shiny blood, and a shimmering wave goes through his body, too.
All three of them, ADA, EVGENY, and the LADY ALMIGHTY go hunting through the city at night. From the point of a vampire's view, the world moves with a step-printing effect.
The End.
I see her as curvy, homey, and soft at the beginning, but getting more and more badass toward the end.
Evgeny is of those guys who don't pay any attention to his looks but ends up being handsome anyway.
She is luxury, always barefoot, and never cares about how the world sees her.
MYSELF
Alongside people, my identity shaped places: the Kamchatka Peninsula and the 600 kilometers I walked through it in 2002; a three-month expedition to Western Tibet in 2004, where I was detained for attempting to illegally cross the Indian border while pioneering the Sutlej River; leaving my homeland and moving to Catalunya, wasn't that exotic as Kamchatka or Tibet, but immigration reformed me no less.
After people and places, the diseases are on the row: in 2018, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I overlived it and created Soultrap—18 female portraits of depression survivors. It was the first documentary short I made, and it got a nomination for Best Experimental Short at L'HIFF, along with official selections for Violetta IFF, 19 Transterritorial de Cine Underground IFF, Ladies in Control IFF, Festival Fotogenia.
In 2020, I founded Female Films Forever, an international association of Russian-speaking women filmmakers.
Director and screenwriter of six short films. Producer of eight short films, including my own.
I'm of the disappearing ethnicity; I'm of post-imperial culture; I'm of the immigrant background—I am a natural talekeeper.
MYSELF
Alongside people, my identity shaped places: the Kamchatka Peninsula and the 600 kilometers I walked through it in 2002; a three-month expedition to Western Tibet in 2004, where I was detained for attempting to illegally cross the Indian border while pioneering the Sutlej River; leaving my homeland and moving to Catalunya, wasn't that exotic as Kamchatka or Tibet, but immigration reformed me no less.
After people and places, the diseases are on the row: in 2018, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I overlived it and created Soultrap—18 female portraits of depression survivors. It was the first documentary short I made, and it got a nomination for Best Experimental Short at L'HIFF, along with official selections for Violetta IFF, 19 Transterritorial de Cine Underground IFF, Ladies in Control IFF, Festival Fotogenia.
In 2020, I founded Female Films Forever, an international association of Russian-speaking women filmmakers.
Director and screenwriter of six short films. Producer of eight short films, including my own.
I'm of the disappearing ethnicity; I'm of post-imperial culture; I'm of the immigrant background—I am a natural talekeeper.
