A girl abruptly enters adulthood while she sees two worlds collapsing in Ukrainian coming-of-age drama ´Do You Love Me?´
Directed by: Tonia Noyabrova
Year: 2023
Country: Ukraine, Sweden
Length: 90 minutes
Kira is a 16-year-old girl living in The Soviet Union in the year 1990. Director Tonya Noyabriova introduces the viewer to Vera with a sequence where we find the young girl dancing to the track ´Venus´ by popular British girlband Bananarama. Kira dances in front of the mirror, fills up her bra, puts on makeup, and embraces herself in the mirror; a girl living her teenage years freely and with joy, at least it seems. Little does Kira know that both the political environment and her family setting are on the verge of collapse.
The plot of ´Do You Love Me´ kicks in once Kira is told about the affair her father is having with one of his colleagues. Kira´s relationship with her father becomes strained as she becomes suspicious of him wherever he goes. Moreover, Kira becomes even more shocked once she learns that her mother knows about her father’s affair but chooses to remain silent. Simultaneously, the radio in the background of several scenes informs us about the current state of the Soviet Union, where food is becoming increasingly expensive and people are trying to find ways to escape their harsh realities.
The situation between Kira´s parents escalates, leading to the girl seeing no other solution to her problems than to make a drastic decision. When she meets Misha, a 25-year-old doctor, the two immediately fall in love and Misha seems to be the answer to all of Kira´s problems. However, Kira soon finds out that the abrupt change from adolescence to living an adult life is more complex than it appears to be.
Just like Kira´s own identity in her journey to adulthood, the place where she lives (USSR) is in a transition period in the film, which Noyabriova highlights by including elements from the traditional Soviet era, such as a large Lenin statue gazing through a bus, which the director then contrasts with western pop culture elements and iconographies like the aforementioned Bananarama song as a motif, a Coca Cola bag and the presence of Terminator movies. By shedding light on this contrast that was present during this time, Noyabriova underscores the uncertainty that was felt in this setting, with people not knowing where their country was heading.
By choosing a divorce story to represent the collapse of the Soviet Union and its effect on the mental health and development of the youth of that time, Tonya Noyabriova creates a compelling work that makes the audience empathize with its protagonist and the struggles that the people she represents had to face.
Do You Love Me premiered at the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival as part of the Panorama selection.
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