AllMovie

Two people play out a story of love and desperation that's enacted through music in this drama from writer and director Ivan Vyrypaev. Sasha (Alexei Filimonov) is a man in his twenties who lives in the small town of Serpukhov and has fallen in love with a woman who is also named Sasha (Karolina Gruszka). However, the man is already married, and in time his desire for the woman drives him mad, and he kills his wife in the hope that he'll now be able to live with Sasha. The set up for the man's strange story is delivered in the form of a song, and over the course of the film, the two Sashas fill in the details of their lives together and apart in the form of pop and hip-hop music videos, with the characters speaking to the audience through their musical numbers. In addition to sharing the story of these star-crossed lovers, the songs deal with the spiritual and physical decline of Russia, and how the loss of faith has crippled the nation. Adapted from a stage play by Vyrypaev, Kislorod (aka Oxygen) was the grand prize winner at the 2009 Sochi Open Russian Film Festival.