We’ll Be Alright

Patients admitted to the Tinskoi Neuropsychiatric Institution in Eastern Siberia lose every right to their lives and futures. In rare cases, the court rules in a patient’s favor and they manage to walk out of the gate; everyone dreams of being free one day. Yulia and Katia were disowned by their mothers and transferred from an orphanage to Tinskoi. Over a four-year period, we follow their struggle to be discharged. Even the director of the institute takes up their cause. “If these young women had grown up in an ordinary family, they would now have been valued members of society,” he argues. But bureaucracy makes for a formidable opponent, and it’s hard to have old diagnoses removed from the files. Filmmaker Alexander Kuznetsov calmly and observantly documents the two women’s lives: their daily routines, brief moments of pleasure, painful memories, suspense in anticipation of a court ruling, new tests, disappointment and fresh hope. Through the car windows, Yulia and Katia catch a glimpse of the world they long to live in.