Closeness

Closeness (Теснота, 2017) is the debut feature of Russian director Kantemir Balagov, and you can watch it online on iFILM. The setting is Nalchik in 1998, a tight Jewish community on the edge of a vast country.

Ilana fixes cars in her father's garage, wears men's overalls, and dates a boy her parents can't stand. Daria Zhovner plays her raw and unsentimental. Then her younger brother and his fiancée are kidnapped for ransom. The sum is impossible, so the family sells everything and turns to the community for the rest — and Ilana becomes the one whose future they're ready to trade for someone else's life.

Balagov trained under Alexander Sokurov, and he frames the film in a cramped, near-square aspect ratio that makes the title literal: the air itself feels short. It took the FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. This is hard, honest cinema with no easy comfort — not a casual night in, but it stays with you. Stream Closeness (2017) online on iFILM.