PICKLED HERRING ｜ Omeleto

A man visits his injured daughter. Irina had an early-morning slip after groggily answering her alarm to take her birth control pill, injuring her leg. Her partner Benjamin has to work, so her Soviet immigrant father Lev comes to visit and take care of her since she is confined to a wheelchair during her recovery. Lev is eager and loving, but also overbearing, which drives Irina crazy. He wants to fix everything in her apartment and her life, including their broken garage door. But as they spend time together, they clash over everything, from their politics and cultural differences to their temperaments. But their tensions come to a head when Irina needs her father the most and finds he's not around again to help. Written by Marina Shifrin and directed by Milana Vayntrub, who also plays the lead role, this short family dramedy is a warm yet incisive portrait of a father and daughter fundamentally at odds with one another. Before the film's action begins, the pair are primarily defined by their absence, since they live far apart. But when Irina needs a caretaker after her accident, Lev comes to the rescue, though his strenuous efforts sometimes cause more trouble than they help.