Anastasia Lapsui

In the company of Anastasia & Markku, filmmakers from the Far North

Markku Lehmuskallio, Finnish, is a woodsman turned filmmaker. Anastasia Lapsui, born under a Nenètse tepee and the granddaughter of a shaman, became a radio journalist in the Nenètse language and has never stopped singing the stories of the tundra. They met 30 years ago, and have been making documentaries and feature films together ever since, inspired by the lives and legends of the Arctic peoples of Siberia, Canada and Scandinavia. Two beings united to create a cinema of resistance, inspired by the sacred breath of myths and the relationship that the cultures of the Far North once had with Mother Earth.

In Reindeer Shape Across the Sky...

This Finnish documentary film directed, written, produced and shot by Markku Lehmuskallio is the first part of a documentary trilogy about the Nenets people. It's a folkloric documentary describing the traditional nomadic life of the Nenets on the Yamal Peninsula. It includes Nenets songs sung by Anastasia Lapsui and her mother Maria Lapsui. The film was the first film collaboration of Markku Lehmuskallio and Anastasia Lapsui.