On November 21, the film “Three of Us” was released, in which Irina Starshenbaum travels through the Perm region in search of herself.

At the center of the plot of the film “Three of Us” is Dasha (Irina Starshenbaum), an employee of the Ministry of Culture who, instead of moving into a new apartment gifted by her fiancé, goes on a business trip to the Perm region. She is accompanied by Sergey (Sergey Kuznetsov), whom the girl met by chance in a bar. Together they are destined to travel through towns and villages, not only to complete Dasha's work but also to get to know themselves better.

In Russian cinema, there is a wonderful trend of going beyond the two capitals to show the lives of people from other regions, as well as the natural beauty of those places. Here, director Alexandra Sarana, for whom “Three of Us” is her feature film debut, chose the Perm region as the setting. And the road movie genre is an ideal solution to show as many points on the chosen map as possible.

But already at this stage, the film starts to stall. The nature of the region is shown sterilely and without much imagination or even a drop of love. Viewers are repeatedly shown panoramas of forests, rivers, meadows, and so on, but it doesn't catch the eye. Perhaps due to the dreary color grading, perhaps due to lazy, uninventive angles. Yes, nature is beautiful in itself, but it still needs to be shown appropriately.

The film's plot also suffers from a lack of imagination. Although the idea itself—that fate can unexpectedly throw the right person into your life at that crucial moment—is quite a suitable field for reflection.

But instead of developing this thought, we watch for an hour and a half the clumsy and strained squabbles of poorly written characters. If the character of Starshenbaum is still more or less okay (she doesn't feel comfortable in her seemingly ideal life and tries to overcome a crisis), her partner is described as superficially as possible (he just falls in love at first sight, just believes in fate, just exists in the frame to be there).

Still, “Three of Us” cannot be called an outright failure. The actors are charming and look organic, individual episodes with rural residents are imbued with that very love that is desperately lacking in the cinematography, and the film's bright message is infectious. Happiness can be found far from the city bustle, and universal ideals do not necessarily have to be your ideals. The main thing is that the right person is nearby, and your favorite work brings joy. And for this alone, debutante Sarana can be forgiven for all the flaws.

Trailer: