Sankt - Female Identities in the Post-Utopian

Twenty-six years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Norwegian student Lena travels to St. Petersburg to complete her practice-based Ph.D. entitled Female Identities in the Post-Utopian. During her stay, she meets Valya and Flarida. In the 1990s, Valya was a successful actress; now she works as a free-lance beautician and wellness provider and is on the verge of opening up a hotel spa. Flarida has just moved from a provincial backwater to the city for an undemanding job at a travel agency. She is single and dreams of finding true love. The three women, bound by a friendship both improbable and fragile, spend the summer together in St.Petersburg. As the story unfolds, they become allies: when daydreamer Flarida loses her job and has to give up her new apartment, she finds shelter with Valya on the construction site of the hotel. Valya’s business plan implodes, but she cannot and will not accept the situation, so Flarida takes her under her wing. Meanwhile, feminist Lena tries to ‘enlighten’ Flarida, who resists her efforts. Ultimately, Lena has to redefine her own role. Sankt—Female Identities in the Post-Utopian humorously explores the models, myths, and imponderabilia of femininity in (post-) socialist everyday life.