If you expect someone to die in this movie based on the title, you should probably reconsider your choice, and may be watch something like Game of Thrones or one of Tarantino's movie. Because Gai Germanika is an artist from another league. She boldly represents the New Drama movement as well as documentary movies' artists that are moved by the desire to show the unpolished reality of our life. So, if you were once a teenager, you will be able to relate to this movie.
In Everybody Dies but Me Gai Germanika provides a complex documentary insight into the youth development and aims to recreate the brutal life of marginalized groups. Gai Germanika is a female, independent, young director in an old male and large production dominated industry. Her unconventional profile as well as her art stand out and resist the norms of Russian cinematography. Similarly, Katia, Zhanna, and Vika- the main heroines of the movie- are in the opposition of power structures. The movie brilliantly portrays common to all young people and especially teenagers experience of resentment, opposition and constant conflict both with external and internal worlds. The concept of "negative identity" resulted from the feeling of resentiment is central to the movie and is especially evident in the hostile and violent way girls treat their childhood. This violence in turn, is a response to the disenchantment with adults and school officials that were once held as role models and omniscient authorities. One of the very first examples of internal conflict we see in the scene when Zhanna attempts to cut her wrists as a punishment for taking her father's fishes to comfort the dead cat in a grave. Thus, the suicidal scene showcases Zhanna's realization of her own immaturity and frustration with her childish and naïve behavior. This scene is then immediately followed by a naked Katia sitting on the pipes in something like a basement and repeating following: "Pust' budet diskoteka i u menia budet paren'" (Let the school dance happen and I'll get a boyfriend). Diskoteka (school dance) and getting a boyfriend are repeatedly emphasized as initiation process into the adult world and a way to finally defeat their childishness. But the culmination of this internal conflict and hostility towards their childishness for me was Katia's sexual intercourse with Alex. Because although we see the unpleasantness and painfulness of the process for Katia, when Alex finishes, she says that she felt very good and it wasn't like anything before. Thus, we can clearly deduce that Katia feels proud of ending her childhood and conforms with what she thinks an adult would say despite the abuse she experienced.
The choice of the mundane, very common experiences and settings in which Gai Germanika places her heroines don't seem to help us understand and perceive their characters. This usually negatively affects the connection between the audience and the main heroines, possibly lowering the degree of sympathy towards the hardships of their life. However, this can be easily explained by the intentional depersonalization and focus on group identity in the best traditions of New Drama achieved through verbatim (Beumers and Lipovetsky 2010). Thus, girls' rough speech consisting of youth slang and interjections: "blin, koroche, vashche, ovtsa" creates a sense of authenticity of a marginalized group they belong to. And in contrast to conventions, make them believable and real to the audience (Beumers and Lipovetsky 2010).
Gai Germanika's documentary shooting techniques is another diamond in the crown of this movie, as they recreate the illusionary sense of presence. Shaky shots created with limited usage of camera track sliders, Steadicam or any stabilizing techniques, and dominant usage of hand-held camera imitate home videos and strengthens the truthfulness of the picture. The close-up, medium close-up, and over-the-shoulder shots, in turn, also engage the audience as life witnesses of the action. Another spectacular feature of this movie is that true depiction of common experiences makes it relatable to all, as we were all once teenagers just like these girls to some degree.
It shouldn't therefore be surprising that Gai Germanika's excellence in both shooting and writing, as well as directing in Everybody Dies but Me got a massive recognition on national and global scale, as it collected Nika Award in "Young Talent Discovery of the Year" nomination, Prix Regards Jeune and special mention in the Caméra d'Or ("Golden Camera" award) on Cannes Film Festival, CineVision award of the Munich Film Festival, as well as «Best Actress» award for the three lead actresses on 26 Brussels International Independent Film Festival.
Although by now you should be already downloading the movie, I still feel an obligation to explain the title due to my disappointing disclaimer in the beginning. But you can stop now to solve this riddle yourself. I must also note that Gai Germanika came up with the title only after shooting the movie, so you can similarly deduce the meaning of it after watching.
But for those interested, let me continue... As I mentioned before, Everybody Dies but Me is a complex picture. Gai Germanika doesn't only discuss the resentment of childhood, disenchantment with adult authority, and making sense of Self in terms of opposing childhood as the Other discussed above. It also rotates around young generation's alarming attitude towards the death. The phrase proclaimed by Katia a.k.a. the title of the movie when she returns home from diskoteka, therefore, is symbolic for teenagers' rejection of death. Because apart from the desire for sexual relations as a mean to be initiated to the adult world, teenagers are also shown as consuming alcohol and constantly smoking cigarettes, as if death is not something that can happen to them. Thus, young people commit not only ADULTery on their childhood, but also on their life.
Review of Everybody Dies But Me
