JUMPMAN: Watch The Trailer For New Film From Ivan I. Tverdovskiy, Director of ZOOLOGY

Young Oksana put Denis in a baby box when he was an infant. Sixteen years later she steals him away from a children’s home, intent on making amends for her neglect. Denis, however, has no idea of the heavy price to be paid for his mother’s favour: the fragile boy has one unusual quality which Oksana has no qualms about exploiting.

My intention was to create a somehow atypical relationship between a parent and a child. She vaguely remembers how she left him and growing up, he almost never saw her. They are both complete strangers to each other, but as our story unfolds, their relationship finally starts developing. They both start having feelings for one another but because of those sudden emotions, my protagonist looses his unique ability. The very same one his mother desperately needs and wants to keep exploiting for her own gain. For me, this is the real culmination of their relationship. And a very emotional one.

 

The mother, Oxana doesn’t really know what it means to have and to love a son, so they don’t really have what you could call a “normal” connection. The whole concept of being a mother is just completely alien to her. What she does and how she behaves might seem inappropriate at times, but for her it’s the only way to manifest love and tenderness towards Denis.