A couple of cinematic hours in a remote, Siberian village is never a bad thing. I still remember the exquisite Ága (2018), an intensely beautiful exploration of silence and subsistence that immersed you in a life that seems far removed from what we think of as Russian culture.

Filmmaker, Alexander Abaturov returns to his home region to give us a prime seat in this observational documentary about the inhabitants of the remote sub-arctic Siberian village of Shologon. They have been left to fight an immense wildfire themselves.

Outside of a designated ‘control zone’, the Russian government has washed its hands of helping fight fires where the cost (to them) outweighs the benefits (to them). With cinematic material that could be full of drama, Abaturov keeps us emotionally at arm’s-length. We see how hard it is, we get to know a few characters, but not deeply, there’s lots of smoke and back burning, but weirdly, not much sense of urgency. Compared to Australian bushfires, the fires seem slow and stately, the villagers unfussed about the wall of fire bearing down on them.

Some scenes are delightful – the women who are peripheral characters, laughing in the back of the truck – and there are almost surreal touches that give us glimpses of the people and culture.

But I left without much more insight than reading the synopsis.

Director: Alexander Abaturov
Origin: France, Switzerland (2022)
Language: Yakut with English subtitles
Genre: Documentary

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