Based on a true story, Michael Borodin’s feature debut captures the terrifying aspects of modern slavery.

The feature debut by Michael Borodin follows Mukhabbat, an Uzbek immigrant, who works at a convenience store on the outskirts of Moscow. Just like the rest of the immigrants at the store, she is forced to work without getting paid and endure mental and physical abuse, until the day she overcomes her fear and takes her fate into her own hands.

Based on true events and active legal cases of immigrants in Russia, CONVENIENCE STORE captures the terrible aspects of modern slavery in a visceral blend of realism, documentary style elements and grand scale cinema.

Prior to CONVENIENCE STORE, Michael Borodin directed several short films, including CRIMEA IS OURS (2017), NORMAL (2018), selected in Semaine de la Critique in Cannes Film Festival and THE REGISTRATION (2019).

The film was produced by Artem Vasilyev from METRAFILMS (Russia), one of Russia’s leading independent film companies, and co-produced by a prominent body of producers – Aleš Pavlin and Andrej Štritof from Perfo Production (Slovenia), and Diloy Gülün from Karma Films (Turkey). The film was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, The Foundation for development of modern cinematography KINOPRIME and Eurimages European Cinema Support Fund.

Screenings at Berlinale
Fri 11.02, 9:15pm @ CinemaxX 1 (press)
Sat 12.02, 4:10pm @ CUBIX 4 (EFM)
Sat 12.02, 3:30 @ Zoo Palast 1 (premiere)
Sun 13.02, 9pm @Zoo Palast 2
Thu 17.02, 5pm @Cubix 9
Fri 18.02, 2:30pm @CinemaxX 4