Poetic tundra parable: black spots in the eternal ice

"Legs are like family, they need each other," muses Nanouk (Mikhail Aprosimov), while his wife Sedna (Feodosia Ivanova) applies a cream to his calves. A self-made magic tincture against the biting cold that has eaten itself through his thick Kamiik boots when he was traveling with the dog.

The northernmost part of Russia, Yakutia, is an ice desert, Nanouk and Sedna live - like their ancestors - in and with the snow. Nanouk drills holes in the meter-deep frozen ground for fishing, his sled dog pulls him along with a few chunks of ice for the supply of drinking water for miles; Sedna cooks fish soup, protects her eyes from reflection when she is looking white, and mends the nets together with Nanouk.

The reindeer that Nanouk used to graze are long gone. As well as Nanouk's and Sedna's adult daughter Aga, of whom Sedna has recently spoken more often: Aga has left the traditionally living parents, gone to town, out of the busy, lonely life, and away from the visible signs of climate change, who draw from the beginning through Milko Lazarov's poetic tundra parable.

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Because something changes, and Nanouk and Sedna will also notice it: Contrails from the heavier air traffic cut through the sky, spring comes earlier, the ice is thinner. And while Nanouk encounters mysterious black spots in his explorations through glistening white landscapes - not only do animals die of it, Sedna rubs herself into an ever more sinister aching black spot on her stomach with one of her magic creams - Kaloyan Bozhilov's camera spots holes that look like Wounds in nature act.

The hole, which Nanouk initially drills for fishing, and on whose walls one can recognize the layers so important for the ecological exploration of the permafrost, finds its equivalent at the end in a gigantic diamond mine in which the earth treasures are mined.

Despite folklore, despite the name reminiscent of the documentary classic "Nanuk, the Eskimo" from 1922, despite the almost documentary accuracy and clarity with which Lazarov composes his pictures, "Nanouk" is anything but exploratory Yurtskitsch. For the drama, which the Romanian director has staged after a few documentaries as a second feature film, deals with a universal theme, and could, whether yurt, kibbutz or skyscraper, play everywhere. Everywhere where children alienate themselves, where two love each other, parents age, and finally the big question must be raised: What to do if someone dies? (And then what about the dog?)

"Nanouk"
Bulgaria, Germany, France 2018
Original title: "Ága"
Book: Simeon Ventsislavov, Milko Lazarov
Director: Milko Lazarov
Actor: Mikhail Aprosimov, Feodosia Ivanova, Galina Tikhonova, Sergey Egorov, Afanasiy Kylaev
Production: Red Carpet, 42film GmbH, Arizona Films, BNT, ZDF, Arte
Distribution: New Vision Film Distribution
Length: 97 minutes
FSK: from 6 years
Start: 18. August 2018

Lazarov relies completely on the power of his captured by the cameraman Bozhilov images. But he does not only rely on the visual impact of the environment, but on the strength of the feelings that Mikhail Aprosimov and Feodosia Ivanova are able to show with minimal gestures. And, with the outstanding soundtrack, even the sounds: when Chena (Sergei Egorov), a neighbor in Aga's age, comes to visit, and Nanouk gets a laughing fit while having breakfast together, as Chena admits, "the teeth are in town" let it go, then he lets Nanouk continue to giggle in the off, makes him chuckle, even as the wind noise from the outside blows. The old Yakut will probably enjoy it for weeks. There's nothing else like gossiping.

The entire scene in which Sedna burdens her husband puts Lazarov in the off: Only the sound of hand on skin can be heard. The camera meanwhile keeps calm on the steaming kettle, motionlessly establishes the idiosyncratic homeliness of the fur-lined tent-home. Instead of a composed soundtrack, the director also plays in emotionally important places the fifth Mahler symphony, which initially comes from a radio in the yurt; also a piece from Ryuichi Sakamoto's composition to "The Revenant" finds its place.

In the video: The trailer for "Nanouk"

Video

New visions

With the masterpiece "Nanouk", which is on the longlist for a European Film Prize, Lazarov has shown that the private can become political even in the eternal ice: The fates of Nanouk, Sedna and Aga are inseparable from the fate of the world.

And as the poles melt, the sick Sedna, for the second time in her life, sews a white fur hat out of a snow hare, for the quietly scolded daughter. "She always loved Aga," she says, pointing to an old photograph. "I'll make her one again." Hopefully the peace offer will not come too late.