Serdtse mira - 'Core of the World' (2018) • reviewsphere

How could we define the relationship between animals and human beings? Are they free to choose? Are we free to choose? The newcomer Russian filmmaker Natalya Meshchaninova expounds those questions creating a familiar drama that includes different themes such as love, alcoholism, ecology and sex, amongst others. And Egor (Stepan Devonin), the protagonist that is also a co-writer (he may be his Alter Ego as well) is immersed into all of those. He is a vet that takes care and treats the animals of a small family that grow foxes and hunting dogs at a small farmhouse in a wooded countryside.

Thus, at the very beginning of the film one of the dogs is attacked by other dogs at the same farm, caused by a neglect and lack of communication. All the family, afflicted, tries to save it. Nikolai, the patriarch, considers the option of sacrificing it, concluding it will not be able to walk again. But Egor denies the idea. He will take up the task and he will look after him, carrying it to the cottage where he lives. Then, a special relationship between the dog and the vet will start, and surely it will be the most powerful relationship he will be able to create. Because Egor can’t handle profound relationships with humans, as the fact that he doesn’t go to his mother’s funeral shows it. Precisely this fact will bring him some thoughts and memories that will shake his deep feelings and will get him out of his (apparently) lineal and calm life.

Meschaninova, also, as one of the writers portrays this intimate story using hand-held camera, nervous and shaking images. She encloses the characters, not only in the frame, but physically in their cottages, the same way their animals are locked in their cages. We are not free. Or are we? This is the big debate that this film brings: do we voluntarily get into the cages that limit our liberty?