Yakutia, the 1930s. Old Mikipper and his wife Oppuos live their days in thick taiga. Cows, hunting, fishing make up the simple everyday life of the old people. Once early in the winter an eagle flies into their garden. The old people dare no drive it away because eagles are sacred.Read More »
This is a film from Yakutia (AKA Sakha republic, part of Russian Federation). There exist separate film industry producing movies on a regular basis. Most of them, including this one, are on the native yakut language. These movies have local screenings in cinemas of the region, sometimes they also have some presentation on russian and international film festivals. This film in particular was shown at Busan International Film Festival 2016 and imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival 2016 in Canada where it wan «Best Feature Drama» award. It was also nominated for APSA- Asia Pacific Screen Award.
When a young man kills his cousin in an accident he is overcome with guilt and, in his grief, commits suicide. His father Ignat, a responsible and devout widower, is left reeling and seeks redemption for his son’s actions. He meets a neglected boy and finds comfort looking after him. But the father of the boy who was killed becomes intoxicated with revenge.Read More »
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The recent commercial and critical flourishing of Sakha cinema – within the Republic, across Russia, and on the global stage – has been remarkable. But no film culture emerges ex nihilo. There are always predecessors, inheritances, and vocabularies from which to build. In purely filmmaking terms, the origins of today’s “Sakhawood” lie in Soviet cinema history as well as in the early pioneers of the post-communist Republic; on a deeper cultural level, they derive from the shared visual and spiritual language of the people themselves. As their broad acclaim demonstrates, the recent wave of films have a universal appeal. But they also stand as proof of the vitality and creativity of a very particular worldview. All of this is encapsulated in Anatoly Vasiliev’s striking and (until now) rarely seen Summer House.Read More »
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In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna’s traditional way of life starts changing – slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world – and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago due to family feud. When Sedna’s health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága.Read More »