Bartas's much-heralded first feature is a beautiful film of quiet, intense observation, conveying only hints of a storyline. Two friends travel from their village to Kaliningrad, an old Baltic port town. They meet two women and wander through the decaying city, seemingly seeking something, yet unable to connect…and then they return home. The mesmerizing visuals of a bleak postindustrial landscape convey a sense of the hopelessness that the characters are unable to articulate. Rarely speaking, they are at their most poignant when gazing out a window at a young woman's private ritual and, later, at a decadent party. Life is happening elsewhere.