In the near-future, where birth rates have dropped to historic lows, the state imposes high taxes on the childless to fund parental benefits and infertility treatments – making the choice to remain childless unaffordable.
Eva escapes to a country where reproductive duty can be fulfilled through work with artificial wombs at the Institute for Reproductive Continuity. Parenthood without pain, blood or tears – nine to five, with a lunch break.
But the pain of her bandaged breasts, unclaimed babies born from artificial wombs, and the water pulling her into layers of bodily memory awaken the guilt she tried to silence – leading her back to the child she abandoned out of fear she might harm her.
Daria Kashcheeva is an independent filmmaker and a graduate of FAMU. In Daughter (2019), her bachelor’s puppet animation work, Daria experiments with camera motion and explores the topic of the father-daughter relationship. The film premiered at Annecy Animation Film Festival and won Best Student Film Award. It went on to receive over 100 more prizes, including the Student Academy Award, Sundance Animation Jury Award, and an Oscar nomination.
In her master degree film Electra (2023), which premiered at Cannes and won Best Short Film at TIFF, she experiments with a combination of live action and stop motion animation, exploring new possibilities of the medium.