Many years ago a terrible and frightening tragedy occurred. A young family happened to be here by chance. She will have to face the ghosts of the past and her fears. How to resist demonic power? How to appease Itchi?
Russian Federation's largest region in north-eastern Siberia, the Sakha Republic with its rich folkloric heritage has recently seen the formation of a new film culture operating outside Moscow and St Petersburg. One of the finest examples from the thriving local film industry in Yakutia, Kostas Marsaan's Ich-chi engages with the shamanic roots of the Sakha folklore. The film focuses on a Yakut family running an isolated farm. One of the sons visits the farm with his wife and child, and begs his parents to sell the farm to pay off a debt. As tensions rise in the family and relationships crumble over property, the father unearths the ich-chi of the farmland, a spirit buried in the premises. According to Sakha belief, all of nature is living and thus each aspect of nature has an ich-chi, collectively referring to the spirit-masters of things, natural phenomena, and land. A very original contribution to the global revival of folk horror genre, Marsaan's film pays tribute to his homeland by depicting it as a remote, inhospitable land of beauty haunted by folkloric spirits
