My Joy

My Joy is a 2010 internationally co-produced Russian-language road film directed by Sergei Loznitsa. It is set in the western regions of Russia, somewhere near Smolensk. My Joy was the first Ukrainian film ever to compete for the Palme d'Or. Plot It is summer, and young driver Georgy takes his light truck on a trip to another town with a cargo of flour. He is stopped at a road police post by a pair of rude and corrupt policemen. While they are flirting with a woman they stopped earlier, Georgy manages to grab his papers and leave unnoticed. There, he picks up a hitchhiker, an old man who recounts to him a disturbing story: soon after World War II, while returning home from the front, a corrupt military officer brazenly robbed him by threatening him with arrest if he did not comply. He later shot the officer in retaliation. Later, when Georgy parks his truck and steps out and shortly returns, the old man has disappeared. Later, Georgy meets an underage prostitute. He takes pity on the girl and gives her some money and food, but she is offended by his charity, insults him and leaves. Later still, Georgy is lost in the night and decides to camp in the field until dawn. Three locals approach and try to steal from the truck, only to be stopped by Georgy. They distract him with some neutral conversation, telling him how one of their friends is a mute because someone killed his father in front of him when he was a child. Suddenly one man hits Georgy on the head with a log and he loses consciousness.