Protagonist of Living with an Idiot, based on a story by Viktor Yerofeyev (known abroad for his novel A Moscow Beauty), is an intellectual and humanist who regards it as his duty to take an idiot into his home. He is looking for mutual trust and does not approach it in terms of punishment or misery. He collects an idiot from an institution. Vova is a victim of his own thoughts and initially appears to be an absent-minded professor. At first everything seems easy and self-evident, but at a certain point, ‘living with an idiot’ becomes unpredictable and tragic. Neither the intellectual nor his young wife could foresee themselves being dragged into a worldof violence by the madman. Vova turns from a dry introvert into a dangerous psychopath.Aleksandr Rogozhkin: ‘Idiocy is characteristic of the Russian people. I hope that my film adequately reflects the paradox of being an intellectual in Russia – and not just now. I hope I have succeeded in revealing mass-idiocy to which everyone can fall prey, starting with the director.’
