Former journalist Vyacheslav Nemyshev traveled many times to Chechnya in 2001 to report on the war for Russian TV. Thirteen years later, his life has changed beyond recognition. Living on a remote island in the far east of Russia, far away from Moscow and memories of the violence of war, he is trying to forge a new existence. He films everyday life on the island, with gorgeous shots of spawning salmon and of fishermen going about their work. Sometimes he turns the camera on himself for lengthy shots in which he looks pensively into the lens. But Julia Mironova's camera follows him as well. Scenes from his daily life with his girlfriend and baby alternate with flashes from his earlier reports, in which we see young soldiers joking around and Nemyshev trying to convince one of them to cooperate with the filming. His words reveal a strong personal engagement with the stories he is working on. And although there is not much said in the film about exactly what happened, it’s obviously no simple matter to escape the nightmare of war, no matter how far away you go.
