Sergei, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on an Arctic research base. Pavel receives an important radio message, but can’t find the courage to tell Sergei until fear, lies and suspicions start poisoning the atmosphere...
Immersing us in the frozen wilds of the Russian Arctic, writer/director Alexei Popogrebsky makes an impressive addition to the canon of films about man’s extraordinary ability to cope with harsh nature and extreme isolation. Young Pavel (Grigory Dobrygin) arrives at a remote research station for a summer of adventure under the tutelage of the wise and crusty Sergei (Sergei Puskepalis), whose multi-year tour of duty is coming to an end. Misplaced confidence and youthful immaturity lead to a string of potentially deadly deceptions.
The deliberate pace of life in the Arctic, combined with the disorienting round-the-clock sunlight, sets the stage for a thriller infused with equal parts psychological trauma and physical endurance. Winner of three Silver Bears (for both lead actors and cinematography) at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.
(http://www.newdirectors.org/2010/category/russia/)
Extract of the interview of Aleksey POPOGREBSKY published by the Russian magazine : Action, www.kinometro.ru
–Why did you choose Chukotka as the setting for your new movie? Did you consider this polar station as a specific place on the map of the world or as just a conventional space within which your story could develop?
–Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by the diaries of polar explorers.Their ability to come to terms with the monstrous vastness of time and space still amazes me. I guess this story of two men living and working in complete isolation slowly developed inside me over the years. Having made two features, I felt I was ready for this challenge. It was clear that for this type of movie we had to merge completely with the actual, real setting. We did some research and found the Valkarkai polar station on the northern most tip of Chukotka. If you look at the map, it is literally the end of the world.We went there for location scouting in 2007 and fell in love with the place. Back home,a big surprise was waiting for me. I was proudly showing this place on the map to Sergey Puskepalis, who starred in my previous movie, SimpleThings, and for whom I wrote one of the two parts in the newscript.He looked at it and then stated matter-of-factly: ‘I lived near there for nine years’. This is true; when he was a child, his parents worked at a nuclear plant in Chukotka.Thanks to that, Sergey, who plays the seasoned polar meteorologist, fitted in completely with the local workers from the very start. Our plan was for the actors to wear their protagonists’ clothes, live their life and follow their routine a hundred percent of the time, which helped a lot.
–Is this story connected somehow with modern times and the present day? Or is it outside time as far as you are concerned?
–I write my own scripts, which for me is the most painful part of the whole process. It literally takes years for me to develop a story. In the process, the protagonists become part of me. Or, rather, parts of me take shape and develop into protagonists,who then take on a life of their own as particular human beings. I would never intentionally put elements of parable into my story. However, when the movie meets the audience, if the story grows beyond the concrete time and place in which it is set, and if it strikes some universal or personal chord in a viewer, for me this means that my mission has been accomplished.