My Joy is a 2010 Ukrainian road movie

Road movie

A road movie is a film genre in which the main character or characters leave home to travel from place to place. They usually leave home to escape their current lives.-History:...

 directed by Sergei Loznitsa

Sergei Loznitsa

Sergei Loznitsa is a Ukrainian director mostly known for his documentary films.-Biography:In 1987 he graduated from Kiev Polytechnic Institute as a mathematician. Between 1987 and 1991 he worked in the Institute of Cybernetics. He developed expert systems, systems of design-making and work on...

. It is set in the western regions of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, somewhere near to Smolensk

Smolensk

Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...

. My Joy was the first Ukrainian film ever to compete for the Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

.

Cast

• Viktor Nemets as Georgy
• Olga Shuvalova as teenage prostitute
• Vlad Ivanov
  Vlad Ivanov
  Vlad Ivanov is an Romanian actor of Lipovan origin.-Filmography:* Moș Goriot - Gondureau* Trăgător de elită - Mikhail Beslan* Snuff-Movie - The policeman* Viața fără ea - Adrian...
  
   as Major from Moscow
• Dmitri Gotsdiner as train station Superintendent

Production

The film was a co-production between Germany's Ma.ja.de, Ukraine's Sota Cinema Group and the Netherlands' Lemming Film. The film was shot in Ukraine as a condition for receiving money from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, but most of the 1.5 million Euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

 budget came from Germany. According to the director there are about 140 cuts in the whole film. Vlad Ivanov's Russian was dubbed as he is a Romanian actor.

Reviews

There was a considerable outcry in Russian media over the film's purported Russophobic slant. Film director Karen Shakhnazarov

Karen Shakhnazarov

Karen Georgievich Shakhnazarov is a Soviet and Russian-Armenian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter. He became the Director General of the Mosfilm studios in 1998.Shakhnazarov is the son of a prominent politician of Armenian descent, Georgy Shakhnazarov....

 claimed that Loznitsa would like everyone living in Russia to be shot. Another Russian film director, Andrey Zvyagintsev

Andrey Zvyagintsev

Andrey Petrovich Zvyagintsev is a Russian film director and actor. He is mostly known for his 2003 film The Return, which won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.-Biography:...

, called My Joy the best Russian-language film of the decade.

Among American reviewers, Manohla Dargis

Manohla Dargis

Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...

 (The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

) referred to the movie as "suspenseful, mysterious, at times bitterly funny, consistently moving and filled with images of a Russia haunted both by ghosts and the living dead". A blurb in Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound

Sight & Sound is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute .Sight & Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent BFI, which still publishes the magazine today...

advertises My Joy as "Ukraine’s answer to Deliverance

Deliverance

Deliverance is a 1972 American thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman. Principal cast members include Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty in his film debut. The film is based on a 1970 novel of the same name by American author James Dickey, who has a small role in the...

". Village Voice (Michael Atkinson

Michael Atkinson (writer)

Michael Atkinson is an American writer, poet and film critic. His debut novel is Hemingway Deadlights , and he has written film and culture critiques for The Believer, Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Film Comment, The Village Voice, In These Times, True/Slant, SPiN, Maxim, The Boston Phoenix,...

) reviewed My Joy as "a maddening vision and one of the year's must-see provocations.

Awards and nominations

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or

Palme d'Or

The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...

 at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival

2010 Cannes Film Festival

The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...

 in May. At the 7th Yerevan Golden Apricot International Film Festival in July, the film won the Silver Apricot Special Prize.