Scent of Time

Raised by her protective mother by the Black Sea, a recent political crisis has forced 12-year-old Vlada to leave home and move in with a mysterious family friend in a peripheral city in Europe. Typically, her lifeworld, immersed in the metaverse as an upcoming XR talent, and that of her caregiver 'A' rarely intersect. Yet, sensing the necessity, he begins to teach Vlada how to protect herself by outsmarting systems she is part of – particularly those which exist outside of the protection of either her mother or by any stable societal institutions.

Scent of Time depicts a contemporary coming-of-age story of a young girl who is grappling with different ideological influences growing up in the mid-2020s. Diving into topics such as exile, shifting worldviews and the awakening of self-determination, the narrative takes place partly in the protagonist's subconscious mind in which her different experiences and dilemmas are expressed from an embodied perspective through dance.