Drama about Mukhabhat who, together with a group of Uzbek women works in a 24-hour-supermarket in Moscow. When the women arrived in the warren-like shop they first had to hand over their passports to the proprietor Zhanna, and ever day Zhanna reminds them of the fact that she owns them. When Mukhabhat is freed by social services, she returns to her home village. But the poverty there as well as the fact that Zhanna still has Mukhabhat's infant in Moscow makes her frequently reconsider her decision.

Shot to look like a documentary, CONVENIENCE STORE has sudden moments of surrealism which makes the depressing subject matter bearable.

Christian Klose