MATRÖSHKI
Fiction | 2026 | 100 min | In post production
What if the biggest rebellion is not becoming your mother?
Germany, 2022. A mother, two daughters, a granddaughter, stitched by love, guilt, survival. The Matriarch Wlada (55) runs a German town kitchen with post-Soviet discipline, pushing Nastya (16) past perfect. Then Sasha (33) lands from Moscow with Daria (10): partner arrested, life in a bag. Sasha wants to stay on her terms: work, permits, proof. The system is rigid, opaque; the flag-burning won’t stand, even with the confession on video. Wlada’s cure is simple and hard: marry her German boss Holger, the butcher. Safety, signed. For Sasha it tastes like surrender. Asylum collapses; pragmatism wins. At a joyless ceremony, nobody but Daria refuses the family’s polite lie. MATRÖSHKI is a tragicomic portrait of women caught between countries and beliefs: the fragile art of becoming free.
Cast: Jana Lissovskaia, Varvara Shmykova, Adina Maaß, Eva Maria Oganyesyan, Sascha Alexander Geršak, Anne Ratte-Polle, Rafael Luis Klein-Hessling, Valery Tscheplanowa, Barbara Colceriu
Director: Alina Yklymova
Production: Schiwago Film
Co-Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Screenplay: Alina Yklymova & Lion Durst
Casting: Jessica Layher
Cinematography: Sina Diehl
Costume Design: Stephanie Zurstegge
Production Design: Mareike Rückert
Make-Up Artist: Aleksandra Kowalska
Editors: Lucas Cantera & Marco Rottig
Production Sound: Friedrich Haustein
Sound Supervisor: Marc Uhlherr
Sound Design: Hannes Berchtold, Ivan Syrov
Music: Sophia Sämann, Torsten Brandes
Production Management: Anne-Kathrin Winkler, Frithjof Stückemann
Producers Schiwago Film: Martin Lehwald, Simon Grohe, Sophia Stier
Producers FIlmakademie Baden-Württemberg: Priska Kraft, Tim Peters
Commissioning Editors: Stefanie Groß, Jan Berning (SWR), Andrea Hanke (WDR), Erin Högerle (HR)
