Production Design — Jeanna Kolesova, Vica Kravtsova, Anna Ivanova
Casts — Anna Ivanova, Nikita Simakov
Sound recordist — Daria Kolesova
Colorist — Jeanna Kolesova
Visual Effects — Jeanna Kolesova
App Graphic Designer — Katia Romanova
Soundtracks — Structured Noise Collective
Mustelide
Final Sound Mix — Michael Smolenkov
Poem for Food by Galina Rymbu
Being a white migrant woman in Berlin is a relatively privileged position. But does it mean one is at peace with oneself? Maria has everything under control - rent paid, food delivered, sport organized, relationships substituted by a friendly voice helper. However, sometimes cracks occur in the surface of her reality. What is there to see?
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One day of Maria and her voice helper dealing with eating disorder and loneliness.
Maria comes home. Her voice helper, also Maria, tells her that her date wants to break up with her. Maria orders food, does sports, gets disrupted by a delivery worker who tries to understand if she is Russian. She starts preparing food, but gets a phone call from her mother. Annoyed by her mother’s questions, she burns parts of the meal and spills the sauce. She gets annoyed, throws the food into a rubbish bin and goes to a shop. On the way she sees quotes of Catharine Malabou, a feminist philosopher. In the shop she starts to listen to the poem about food. Having bought a lot of random products, she comes back home and destroys the food on the floor of the living room. The film ends with her recreating the salad she has thrown into a rubbish bin.
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The film is a reflection on the complicated relationship to food, as well as other aspects of the lives of its authors, post-Soviet migrants in Berlin with female gender markers. It is inspired by the “Daisies” by the czech feminist director Vera Chytilova and recreates the story of two Marias in the relationship between the protagonist and her voice helper. While in “Daisies” the Marias look for abundance in the conditions of socialist scarcity, in “the bag of flour…” the abundance is present, but does not bring satisfaction. To reflect the complexity of female gender socialization, the film plays with quotes by Catharine Malabou about plasticity and shows Maria’s relationship with her mother and a tinder date. Maria’s eating disorder is represented metaphorically, as she listens to “Poems for Food” by Galina Rumby and destroys all the food she just bought. The film has an open end, showing that all struggles Maria lives through can not be resolved, as the reasons for them are socio-political and systemic
