TOGETHER

“Why can’t you run away from yourself?” nine-year-old Anna asks her father at the very beginning of the film. One quickly guesses that both of them have some problems in their lives that they would only all too gladly run away from, and yet the situation that Denis Shabaev and his daughter find themselves in remains mysterious to the end. A car trip several days long through Germany and Scandinavia after a visit to Anna’s mother. Rest stops, playgrounds, motel rooms, highways by day and by night – eating, sleeping, playing, cuddling – the two film each other incessantly. Interspersed with an occasional song from Radiohead, recurring fragments of philosophical conversations, more or less vague hints at the mother’s mental state. Where is the journey leading them? To Pippi Longstocking? To grandmother? Father and daughter don’t quite seem to know themselves. And little Anna still has to make a difficult decision... Located somewhere between diary and experimental film, Shabaev’s debut film TOGETHER provides a fascinating look into the equally complicated and magical world of a child.