''Ayka'' () is a 2018

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Sergey Dvortsevoy Sergey Vladimirovich Dvortsevoy (born 1962) is a Kazakhstan, Kazakh filmmaker of Russian origin. His 2008 feature film ''Tulpan'', was Kazakhstan's 82nd Academy Awards, 2009 Academy Awards official submission to Academy Award for Best Foreign Lan ...

. It was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the

2018 Cannes Film Festival The 71st annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 8 to 19 May 2018. Australian actress Cate Blanchett served as jury president for the main competition. Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda won the ''Palme d'Or'', the festival's top prize, fo ...

. At Cannes,

Samal Yeslyamova Samal Ilyaskyzy Yeslyamova (, ''Samal Iliiasqyzy Eslämova''; born 1 September 1984) is a Kazakh film actress. She is recognized internationally for starring in the film '' Ayka'' directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy, which won her the award for Best ...

won the award for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress award ...

. It was selected as the Kazakhstani entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Bes ...

at the

91st Academy Awards The 91st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2018 in film, films of 2018 and took place on February 24, 2019, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. During th ...

, making the December shortlist. The film was produced under the working title ''My Little One''.

Plot

The story is centered around a young Kyrgyz woman named Ayka who lives in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Russia. After giving birth to a baby, she abandons the newborn, escaping through a hospital window. She is desperate for income, as she owes money to criminals but now struggles to repay the debt. She returns to a job plucking chicken feathers. After the work is done, the men running the operation leave without paying their workers. Trying to regain another previous job, Ayka finds that she has been permanently replaced while in labor. With her

work permit A work permit or work visa is the permission to take a job within a foreign country. The foreign country where someone seeks to obtain a work permit for is also known as the "country of work", as opposed to the "country of origin" where someone ho ...

expired and pain and complications from the pregnancy, it is nearly impossible for her to find or keep another employment. Ayka finally gets a part-time job as a cleaner at the veterinary clinic. Debt collectors find her and demand she return their money, threatening to torture her sister back in Kyrgyzstan. She confesses to them about the recent birth of a son, saying that she became pregnant as a result of rape. They offer to take her child in order to settle her debts.

Cast

as Ayka *Polina Severnaya as the hospital administrator *Andrey Kolyadov as Victor, the chief

Reception

Critical response

''Ayka'' has an approval rating of 82% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 6.7/10.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayka 2018 drama films 2010s Russian films 2010s Russian-language films Kyrgyz-language films Kazakhstani drama films Russian drama films French drama films German drama films Polish drama films Chinese drama films Films about illegal immigration Films set in Moscow 2010s French films 2010s German films