Mud

The Northerners is a cycle of film essays with a focus on northern individualism. Each one of the three parts plays out in different places around the Kola Peninsula over one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people who share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a dynasty of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vasily is a tug master at Murmansk’s commercial port; Volodya is a woodcutter, leader of a logging guild. Like most of those living in the north of Russia, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying, they ended up staying forever.

In Russia, an introverted father and his teenage daughter live on the road in a van that contains their entire life, including the equipment for a travelling cinema: the source of their meager income. Povolotsky builds on the undeniable art of the long take, on both the scale of the imposing landscapes and the tight interior of their cramped vehicle. The nameless father and daughter rove around the extremities of their vast country, from south to north. On its margins, the pulse of independent drifters who endure and resist.

From the Barents Sea, a chill wind seems to blow constantly across a semi-deserted town at the edge of the world. Nevertheless, a little community holds out here. In a flawlessly filmed portrait of this extraordinary place, the theme linking the residents is their determination to chart their own course. Bardak was a marine, but his garrison broke up and his comrades sought a better life elsewhere. He stayed behind among the many empty buildings that are slowly but surely being consumed by the elements. Meanwhile, Dima, a young poacher​, flouts as many rules as he can, but gives friendly directions to lost tourists and reads lovingly to his little daughter. Ferryman Alexander is locked in a silent generational battle with his teenage daughter Masha; her eyes are on the outside world. Further along, a little team of ships from the Second World War turns up, and a woman steadfastly runs a weather station.