Anastasia Veber

Anastasia Veber is a Berlin-based director and writer. Her graduation short film, Trap, won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale and has been featured in numerous international film festivals. She took part in Cannes Residency and Torino Script Lab with her feature project “Kindergarten Optimisten”. She holds a degree in directing from the Saint Petersburg School of New Cinema and a screenwriting degree from the Saint Petersburg University of Cinema and Television. Anastasia’s work delves into themes of youth discrimination, religious discourse, and she blends cinematic storytelling with performance art. In addition to her directing career, she works as a script consultant and teaches her own film course “CINEMASTORIES” which explores cinematic reality, film diaries tradition and new media.

Daydreaming about the end of the world

LIM 2025

After being robbed, a young homeless woman tries to travel from point A to point B in a big city, searching for the only item that remains from her previous “normal” life. Her journey turns into a paranoid chase, during which she gradually loses her mind, experiencing visions of the end of the world and becoming lost in fragmented memories. Each vision is triggered by visual and auditory coincidences in the city’s landscape — what begins as city exploration turns into a labyrinth, strangers’ faces transform into talking spirits, and a massive wave looms over a panel-block house. Due to her disoriented visions, her memories become jumbled, and eventually, she loses her sense of reality, swallowed by the wild urban jungle. She gains religious revelations and the gift of prophecy, transforming into a saint — both punished and praised by society. “Daydreaming” explores the connections and ruptures between the “city” and the “human”, using the hagiography genre as a key reference. It immerses the audience in the suffering and imagination of a young woman on the edge of her existence.