Give Me Liberty

Kirill Mikhanovsky / US, 2019 / 110 min.

Vic works as a medical transport driver in Milwaukee and has a busy work schedule ahead of him. Soon he is running late as protests bring the city to a halt.

Vic’s granddad nevertheless manages to persuade Vic to take a detour so that a group of elderly Russians are able to attend a funeral.

Chaos mounts as Vic next stops to pick up regular passenger Tracy. The encounter between strangers leads to both awkward and hilarious scenes. A portrait of America’s failing health care system, filmed with compassion and humour.

Kirill Mikhanovsky based himself on his own experiences as a wheelchair bus driver for his hilarious but moving debut film. Together with screenwriter Alice Austen he created a raw and original slice of life story about people confronted with obstacles, in their lives and in the city. The American dream is not working for them.

Give Me Liberty is an endearing and humorous look at ordinary people, with powerful improvised play by the non-professional actors. The film was selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes in 2019 and won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award in 2019.

This is part of

Previously Unreleased

Director

Kirill Mikhanovsky

Production year

2019

Country

Original title

Give Me Liberty

Length

110 min.

Language

English, Russian

Subtitles

NLD

Format

DCP

Part of

Previously Unreleased

The films featured in Eye’s Previously Unreleased programme were screened at major national and international festivals, but were never released to Dutch cinemas. Every summer, Eye brings a choice of films previously selected for international festivals to Dutch film audiences to redress the balance.

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