Dark, nihilist political allegory about a gullible lorry driver who gets stranded in an ominous and very hostile stretch of country.
Feature debut by documentary maker Loznitsa, with impressive camerawork by Oleg Mutu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).
The truck driver Georgy sets off with a freight-load of flour. On the way, he passes police checkpoints manned by crazy, completely corrupt officers and he gives a lift to a teenage whore who gets furious when he doesn’t want sex with her but only wants to help her. He gets stranded in the labyrinthine countryside, where all the roads seem to be dead ends and is attacked by vagabonds. Man is naturally a wolf to men, the gullible good guy discovers. He has to adapt quickly to survive.
The dark, nihilist political allegory My Joy is the feature debut of the Ukrainian-born German resident Sergei Loznitsa, whose documentaries have previously been screened at the IFFR. The impressive camerawork is by the Romanian cameraman Oleg Mutu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu). At the Cannes Film Festival, My Joy (co-produced by the Dutch company Lemming Film) was the only debut in the Golden Palm competition.
Programmer Note by Ludmila Cvikova:
Our history with Sergei Loznitsa started in 2006 when we premiered his unforgettable film Blockade. But he was known to the film world a long time before he came to Rotterdam, as Sergei is an excellent documentary maker with his very own style.
It was actually during that festival that Sergei told us something that was a top secret then: he was busy writing his first feature film. We had no idea that the film would make such a career then: appearing as the only debut at the Cannes film festival four years later. The project was My Joy. And Sergei knew already then that he would not get any film financing in his fatherland. The project got support from our Hubert Bals Fund and became a part of our CineMart selection in 2007, excerpts from the script were read by the director during the Happy Endings - Script stage sessions that same year.
Even the international success of the film did not open the minds of some Russians and when it received one of the prestigious prizes of the Russian national FF Kinotavr, Sochi, it evoked scandalous reactions. The Russians hate to see 'chernukha' as they call it and somehow think that these kind of films are made 'on demand of the West'. Instead of being proud of the presence at such a prestigious festival as Cannes. It seems to me sometimes they would like to have back the optimism of the social realism on the big screen. Maybe because they lack it in life?