"Everybody dies but me. Go **** yourself!" - would YOU ever dare to say this phrase to your parents? If YOU would not, then the film Everybody dies but me directed by Valeriya Gai Germanika is really worth watching for YOU. If YOU would, then it is much more than worth watching, it is worth analyzing for YOU.
The process of growing up is crucially important for both parents and children, which is dramatically portrayed in the film. This work can be used as a source for analyzing the necessity to non-childfree people pay attention to their children and to minimize the mistakes during this period of misunderstandings.
By mentioning the artificial detachment from the real world, the film draws attention to the issues that exist in reality: the attempts of kids like Zhanna (Agniia Kuznetsova), Vika (Ol'ga Shuvalova) and Katia (Polina Filonenko) to be adults through drinking, talking about sex and suffering from these desires afterwards which led them to unconsciousness, rape and betrayal; the useless attempts of adults like the girls' parents to control their kids, by violently suppressing them, beating and then falling at the girls' feet after realizing that their children need support OR A PROPER UPBRINGING instead. Such a provocative approach to the topics not openly discussed in the post-Soviet countries like parent-child relationships, reality of growing up, brought several awards to the director of the film, including Cannes Film Festival "Prix Regards Jeune - Young cinematographer" award (2008) and Nika Award nominated for "Young Talent Discovery of the Year" (2009) IMDB.
Various messages sent by Gai Germanika can provoke the emergence of the flashbacks to real life in the mind of the viewer, just like it happened in my head. The film woke up the memories of being a child and an "observer" of the situations that the main heroines Zhanna, Vika and Katya went through. When I was a child, I was happy to meet people whom I did not think of until watching this film. And I am now happy that the films like Everybody Dies but Me give the viewer a chance to draw the parallels with the reality of people who had been going through similar situations in their life. I remember a 14-year-old girl that was betrayed by her boyfriend, suffered from this as an immature child, in the mean time trying to hide more behind that mask of suffering from betrayal. When I asked her what the problem was, she asked me to follow her to a place where no one would see us and showed me a lump of breast cancer that she could not even tell her parents about. Another girl Galia living in the dormitory for low-income people was misguided by constant shifts between the abuse and sudden support of her parents, in the same way as Vika was. Undoubtedly, we all have memories that our consciousness wants to bury inside, however, this film's plot will make you dig them up and reanalyze it as a direct observer of the events happening with the heroines. The lack of special effects in the shooting and the montage of the film makes the viewer feel as if he is standing near the girls, looking at them but just not able to stop them from rash decisions that the girls' parents should have prevented.
"Everybody dies but me. MOM, WHAT?!"
The way the girls treat their parents can result in unpleasant feelings towards them, however, this behaviour can also be perceived as a common issue among various generations. The film demonstrates complete misunderstanding between Generation X, Y and Z, by showing their relationship with each other through the dialogues emerging due to the disco that the girls wanted to attend so much:
- "Mom, why don't you go to hell? Dad, why don't you go to hell? I ****ed it all!"
- "We still love you very much."
- "But I don't!!!"
Why did this conversation happen only after horrible events at the disco? Were the girls supposed to face such a destiny so that their parents would understand that there is something going wrong? Did they understand indeed? Or should the world be like that: parents reacting by carrot and stick, teachers aggressively reacting to the provocative actions of girls, girls having no idea how to grow up, therefore, choosing the way that seems to be supported by older girls in the school. Is it a reality? A hundred more questions will arise after watching the film and a thousand more answers will form in the viewer's mind.
"Everybody dies but me. If only all adults would die..."
The girls depicted in the film obscured from the reality of adolescents and generated their own adult world where their imperfections could transform into the traits that older girls from the school would consider to be cool. Uncertainty hidden by impulsiveness, preference to bubblegum when they are alone because they like it vs drinking alcohol when they are with other girls because it is a way to deserve respect in their society. Gay Germanika shows that adolescents are often doing everything they can to create a parallel world to fit their views and dive into the reality that seems to be more pleasant. But whom is it actually pleasant to? To the girls themselves? Or to those older girls who witness their shame?
The girls' rejection of their parents, teachers, schoolmates, rules in general demonstrates the negative identity they can be associated with. Trying to react with violence and perceive people, who they do not identify themselves with as others, worsens the situation for the girls. Actually, everything is the other in this film for the girls: world, society, adulthood, childhood, parents, girls to each other and even death seems to be something unreal for them, because they prefer to be untouchable by all of that, they have their own reality. The girls' incomplete understanding of the world around them and the depictions of others as rivals pushes Zhanna to say: "If only all adults would die...".
But does she want everyone to die indeed? Zhanna's reply to this question would be:
"Come and see it, or go **** yourself!"
