Northerners

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 the space of one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people that share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a family of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vassily is a Murmansk merchant port tug master; Volodya is a woodcutter and leader of a wood harvesting guild. Like most of the people living in the north, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying on, they ended up staying forever. They share this peculiar perception of reality, a special rhythm of life and the way they see themselves and others. They have taught themselves not to fear to surrender their lives to natural cycles, to be proactive, to count on no one but themselves yet to always help everyone, even strangers, not to make plans and not to get down. (Camerimage)