A HAWK AS BIG AS A HORSE

A bigender artist and ornithologist captivated by David Lynch's Twin Peaks: a surreal nonfiction mystery about an enchanting anomaly of creativity

Lydia, a 47-year-old bigender person, is a respected ornithologist. She lives with her wife Vasilisa in the small town of Shcherbinka, gives private biology lessons, and works for a company that prevents collisions between birds and planes. Vasilisa trains police horses.
Lydia's life is entirely devoted to living out her own fantasies. In a self-built wooden cabin, she tries to recreate the atmosphere of Twin Peaks, the famous series by David Lynch, and craft her own version of it.
Lydia always seems to act like a character in the drama she creates for herself and others. She came up with a ritual in which elbows are creatures that can communicate with each other; she also spent her savings on creating a silicone doll named Lara—an exact copy of the actress who plays Laura Palmer's best friend in Twin Peaks. For Lydia, she is an ideal of femininity, an allegory of beauty.
The film's director, Sasha Kulak, through Lydia’s character, is confronted with a question that messes with her understanding of the documentary genre: when faced with an abnormality, is it necessary to answer the questions it asks? How do you distinguish between reality and a dream? Sasha's voice draws us in until she herself becomes a character in this unique cinematic experience.

Original language: Russian
Subtitles: English