In Russia, an introverted father and his teenage daughter live on the road in a van that contains their entire life, including the equipment for a travelling cinema: the source of their meager income. Povolotsky builds on the undeniable art of the long take, on both the scale of the imposing landscapes and the tight interior of their cramped vehicle. The nameless father and daughter rove around the extremities of their vast country, from south to north. On its margins, the pulse of independent drifters who endure and resist.

Grace

The Northerners is a cycle of film essays with a focus on northern individualism. Each one of the three parts plays out in different places around the Kola Peninsula over one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people who share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a dynasty of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vasily is a tug master at Murmansk’s commercial port; Volodya is a woodcutter, leader of a logging guild. Like most of those living in the north of Russia, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying, they ended up staying forever.

The Northerners

Froth is a feature-length documentary about the customs and everyday life on the coast of the Barents Sea.

Froth

To the aural accompaniment of sloshing mud and gurgling water, Russians soak themselves in the curative mud baths of a historic spa. It is October 2022, and the full-scale invasion in Ukraine has been underway for seven months. This place, however, seems completely unaffected. Before visitors can enjoy the benefits of being packed in mud, they have to deal with a complex jumble of prohibitions, stamps, voucher systems, and other bureaucratic hoops and hurdles.