Euphoria

Pavel can’t hold back anymore. He decides to confront Vera with the truth. He tells her that he can’t live anymore without looking at her the way he first did at a recent wedding. She confesses that she looked at him, too, and she doesn’t know why. Something unexpected happened, something they have never known before, something they cannot comprehend … Vera lives with her husband, Valery, and their little daughter, Masha, in a remote dilapidated village in the wide open steppes near the banks of the River Don. But she seizes an opportunity to run off with Pavel when Valery turns violent. The jealous husband follows the new couple, intent on destroying their passion.

Director’s Statement

»Euphoria« is the story of an unexpected love, genuine and merciless, almost brutal. Since they have never been taught to love and to be loved, they cannot cope with the euphoria that has seized them. It’s a story about people who act like children, people who live like recluses in the wild nature of the steppes. They are just tiny figures against the imposing steppe landscape, both beautiful and troubling. The majestic River Don is the silent witness of their passions.

»Euphoria« is Ivan Vyrypaev’s directorial debut.
As a playwright, Vyrypaev has won some of Russia’s most prestigious theatre awards, as well as the Presidential Council Prize “For Contribution to Russian Literature”. His plays, like Ijul (July), Bytie n.2 (Genesis No.2), Kislorod (Oxygen), Valentinov den (Valentine’s Day), Gorod gde ja (The City, Where I Am, Dreams), have been staged at many theatres worldwide. He is also the author of the 2005 book »13 tekstov, napisannyh osenju« (Thirteen Texts Written in the Autumn), and the screenplay for Pyotr Buslov’s 2006 film »Bumer 2« (Heaven on Earth). Born in Siberia in 1974, Vyrypaev graduated from Irkutsk Theatre School in 1995 and moved to Moscow a few years later.