Territory of Love

After leaving the psychiatric facility where they had been wrongfully confined, Katya and Yulia, two young Russian women whom I have been filming for many years, finally achieve independent lives. This newfound freedom, which they have fought so hard to attain, promises to make their dreams of a new future come true. But how can one be free and pursue their aspirations in today’s Russia?

A story of the Siberian province. Girls passed directly on from orphanage to neuropsychiatric institutions are deprived of their rights as citizens: no freedom, no work, and no family. The path to reconquer these rights, in the face of fearsome Russian institutional bureaucracy, is long and difficult. At times, someone succeeds, but the new freedom is then a leap into the unknown.

For several years, Arina, her father Valeri, Nicolai, Roman have been coming to the natural reserve of Stolby, situated a few kilometers away from the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, fleeing the rough day-to-day life of their hometown and come here to rest, dance, climb and talk for hours.