fderollepot

This rare movie, with a photography by Hans Scheim who had worked with Leni Riefensthal is perhaps the Inuit testimony. It tells the contest between two rivals for the love of an Inuit woman. The forces of nature will decide the winner. Beautifully shot in summer with Inuit actors, its story comes from anaold Inuit legend. Traditional eskimo culture is embodied such as the singing contest to make the opponent laughed at by the audience. Hope a DVD shall be released to make this masterpiece widely available at last.

This is the first film written and directed by a Nenet artist in collaboration with a Finish Film director. It doesn't tell, it makes you feel how the Nenets, who are reindeer herdsmen in Siberia, relate to their territory. It also renders the suffering deriving from Russian occupation and forced assimilation. None of this is rhetorical but shown through very graphic black and white photography and narrated through 7 Nenets songs. Slow and moving. A rare masterpiece !