Mijniki avtomobiliv

Kiev in the nineties, tainted by a serious economic collapse and rising crime. A group of kids boost the family budget by washing cars at a gas station whose proprietors make a living in a rather dodgy way. One day, they accuse the kids of stealing a cell phone but a rich woman prevents them from being punished. The kids don’t suspect that she’s the wife of a man connected to the mafia, nor that it will ultimately and tragically affect their fate. In the meantime, threatened by the police and the underworld, they move to an intersection. They soon get a taste for money and learn to cruelly eliminate the competition, especially the homeless. Like other kids on the street who live by begging and become addicted to drugs, the group is gradually transformed into an unscrupulous gang. Despite losing moral inhibitions and acknowledging false authority figures, these prematurely adult youngsters long for true love and never lose their sense of friendship and solidarity. The story is narrated by the 13-year-old protagonist who eventually discovers how much this society has affected him. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)