Taisa Deeva

Writer / Director

Russia

Russian-born, Taisia moved to London to study ﬁlmmaking at Met Film School where she got BA in Film Directing in 2013. Taisia wrote and directed the short ﬁlms Ruslan (2014) and Sasha (2016) that won several awards at international short ﬁlm festivals and screened at a variety of international ﬁlm festivals including the Oscar qualifying short ﬁlm programs at Leeds International Film Festival and Austin Film Festival.

Project

Not Here. Not Us.

Not Here. Not Us. is a story that takes place in a small provincial town in central Russia in the beginning of the 2000s. The main character Alina, a smart and attractive 16 year-old, lives with her loving but strict and controlling mother. Alina’s biggest dream is to leave the small town with its narrow-minded community and break free from her mother’s suffocating control.
The narrative deals with a special time in Alina’s life – the moment when all the values that she has been taught growing up – by the family, school, religion, etc. collide with reality and her own perception of the world.
The central theme of the story is Alina’s search for freedom. Her understanding of freedom evolves in the course of the events of the narrative. In the end Alina comes to understand that one cannot seek for freedom in other people or geographical places. To be free one needs to be brave to stand up for who one is and what one wants.