Black magnoly

Aina, a 43-year-old woman awaiting the results of a medical examination, flies from London to Almaty. In a restaurant she runs into Vera, a former friend who suddenly vanished from her life thirteen years earlier. Wanting to understand why their friendship ended, the two women travel together to the town where they grew up. Several days in a shared hotel room bring back memories of a past full of hardship and domestic violence. Vera suffers from insomnia, fears she is being watched and is convinced her phone is tapped. It gradually becomes clear that their old friendship cannot be restored: in thirteen years they have become strangers. Back in London, Aina learns that she does not have a tumour. It then emerges that Aina had tracked down Vera’s address, followed her and gained access to her messages: Vera’s fears were justified. The attempt to reclaim the past ends in a realisation: the old relationship cannot be restored, and what they lived through has to be accepted.