Svetlana Dalskaya

White Moss

The story takes place in Tundra. The local camp is preparing for a wedding, if it can be called a wedding in Nenets traditions. There are no guests, no closest or distant relatives, no feast, no songs, no smiles. The bride arrives to the groom’s camp without any attributes of a celebration. Young Alyoshka marries because his mother insists – the chum should not go vacant, the family should not die out. His heart though longs for Ilne, the daughter of old Petko. Ten years ago Ilne left the camp for the mainland. Every day Alyoshka checks the road hopelessly waiting for his love to return.

Unfastening

A documentary essay on inner freedom, on choosing the path, about responsibility for one's destiny and for the destinies of close people. The heroes of the film are clergymen, who for a canonical reason are temporarily forbidden to serve: priest John Okhlobystin and hierodeacon Prokhor (Lisitsyn). Priests banned from service or resigning voluntarily are referred to as offensive nicknames for "rasstrigi."

The Cuckoo

Clay animation based on the eponymous folktale Nenets. Caring mother and her three unruly children live in the tundra. After the rescue, one of his sons who had fallen into the river, a mother is sick. Enervated woman appeals to kids asking to bring her water, but children continue to frolic and play, unaware of the approaching disaster ...

My Kith and Kin

Lolita is a bearer of two cultures, her mother is Russian, and her father is Azerbaijani. This is a subtle and piercing story about how a ten-year-old girl first travels to Azerbaijan to get acquainted with her father's parents. She wants to learn as much as possible about the traditions, culture and customs of her Azerbaijani relatives. Her first acquaintance with Azerbaijan is the subject of this documentary.

The Breath of the Tundra

Far from civilization, where there still have no gap between human and natural world, one can feel the true breath of the earth, the unity of living and nonliving matters. The picture directs towards the world of ones sensory experience, induces to try breathing with the tundra, adding video and audio series with their own feelings, experiences and associations. This is an experimental film also, trying to find new ways of cinematic language.