With Love, Lilly

Lilly works at a poultry processing plant. The conditions are terrible but in the provincial town where she lives she has little choice. Thus, it’s hardly surprising that she engages in romantic daydreaming about love and marriage. A hotel receptionist arranges dates for her and, despite the fact that they are invariably unattractive married men, she puts great energy into preparing for them. She idealizes the men, writes them naive love letters, and sometimes must even face the aggression of their wives. When a fortune-teller assures her that she’ll find happiness with a man named Boris, she confides her love plans to her friends and even finds a wedding dress. Then she sees her dream groom’s fiancée wearing the same frock. In shock, she gets into a taxi, the same one she once used to escape an angry wife. To her surprise, she discovers that she and the driver (named Boris) get along great. Director Larisa Sadilova has set her emotional story in the town of Orel, whose look and lifestyle precisely capture the social situation of the Russian provinces. —Karlovy Vary Film Festival