Is love always about reciprocity? Or is it self-deception? Or maybe love is about self-sacrifice? The heroes of the new film 'Illusions' are engaged in reflections on these questions, which resembles a psychotherapy session not only in form but also...

On March 27, an experimental project — the film-play Nikolai Gostyukhin's 'Illusions' based on the eponymous play by Ivan Vyrypaev, which has been captivating theater audiences worldwide for over 10 years, will be released on the Okko platform and other popular streaming services. In it, four characters (who are not really heroes) tell the love stories of two elderly couples — Denny and Sandra, Albert and Margaret — who decide to indulge in revelation on the border between life and death.

At a Therapy Session

Director Nikolai Gostyukhin moved the action to a family therapist's office, where two friendly couples, through a metaphorical story about old people, share their own experiences and thoughts about relationships within marriages. Extremely frank and emotional. And the viewer is called upon to act as the listening party.

Interestingly, the viewer in the film 'Illusions', although in the status of an observer, if not a judge, receives a lot of food for their own thoughts. The characters, through their stories, prompt reflections on the most illusory and inexplicable of feelings — love. Does love have to be mutual to bring a person happiness? Should one sacrifice their emotions for another? How honest must one be in a relationship so as not to betray oneself? A huge number of such questions may arise while watching, and everyone will answer them for themselves.

Non-Standard Storytelling

The experiment with the storytelling format, where the story is literally told to you head-on, looks intriguing. You instantly get involved in what is happening, and your imagination fills in the rest. In some ways, this approach resembles listening to an audiobook, but with the addition of eye contact (albeit not in real time).

In this context, it is very important that the narrator can completely capture the viewer's attention, win them over, and engage them with their speeches. And in this regard, there is a feeling that the female parts succeeded much more. It is hard to say whether it is due to the longer segments of the story or the greater emotionality of the women themselves, but the actresses Ekaterina Mudraya and Ksenia Otinova clearly outperformed their partners Dmitry Neskoromny and Alexey Karakulov. This could be attributed to the everyday opinion that women are inherently more emotional than men, but in this case, it would seem like an excuse.

And a Little Animation

To break up the monotony of the narrative (after all, listening to an hour-and-a-half verbal stream is no easy task), the creators of the project 'Illusions' added animated inserts depicting episodes from the lives of Denny and Sandra, Albert and Margaret. They are accompanied by music from the composer under the pseudonym IVAN. The animation is not particularly sophisticated, but it fulfills its main task — it allows you to slightly shift your attention and look at something other than the characters' faces and the central speaker's chair.

Is It Worth Watching 'Illusions'?

Director Nikolai Gostyukhin said that he read information that about 2 billion people divorce worldwide every year due to total misunderstanding. This figure stuck in his head and became his motivation for staging the play 'Illusions' and its subsequent film adaptation. His way of telling and showing how one can rediscover sensual contact with each other.

In summary, it can be said that he has created an interesting experiment at the intersection of theater and cinema with elements of immersiveness. And the story being told can indeed prompt some rethinking of one's attitude towards love and one's significant other, if they exist. So, perhaps, the director successfully achieves the main goal with his project.