There Was No Sex In USSR

In the pressuring context of Soviet reality, three best friends, Roma, Lyuda, and Shura, live their lives in a small city in eastern Ukraine. Besides classes, they go to ANTIPE, a discussion club for everyone who wants to talk, dream, and share their opinion. The three friends try their best to figure out what the future will bring, but navigating their own paths is difficult, when social expectations are ever present. Shura neglects chess practice and has no idea what else he can aspire to. Roma wants to end his engineering studies to become a professional dancer. Lyuda accepts the predetermined career set by Soviet norms, hiding her own dreams deep inside. Together, they find comfort and a real home in the essence of their friendship. When ANTIPE is suddenly closed, being deemed an anti- political organization, it pushes the three friends to run away. The escape fails and they return home again, moving from innocence to adulthood and facing their reality with more confidence.

Director’s statement
There Was No Sex in USSR is a short story that follows the lives of three adolescents, Shura, Lyuda, and Roma, in Soviet Ukraine of 1985. In a poetic narration, the film jumps through several months and follows their everyday life, with each day bringing new feelings and circumstances to deal with. The film is a recollection of adolescence and forgotten places from the past we all recognize, the important decisions of our youth, and teenage maximalism. It is about all of us and the place we call home.
The film refers to two topics that have relevance in this day and age. The first topic covers the sense of home, the feeling of longing for that home, and the value of our memories. The second is the awareness of the limitations and privileges of the social system you live in. Both are things I had to face myself and I felt sympathy with others who went through the same experiences. Although the plot takes place in the past, the film is a metaphor for present issues across the globe.