Christian Vagt & Stephan Dudeck

Before the snow / Enne lund / До снега

29 min
Germany 2008

Josif Kechimov, Yuri Vella Agrafena Pesikova
Unit Manager/ Production: Stephan Dudeck
Camera/ Sound/ Editing:
Executive Producer: Stephan Kurz
Produced/ Directed by Christian Vagt
Russian with English or German subtitles
29 min
Germany 2008 (?)

Synopsis:

"We are living in a bad century, aren’t we.
Such a life has started.
Even the dead begin to walk about,
they say."

Western Siberia. Stories of ghosts and the deceased are a living tradition in the block houses and nomad tents near the oil fields. They teach the indigenous Khanty a way of dealing with evil, fear, damage and harm. Individual experience and folklore mix in the accounts of reindeer breeders Josif Kechimov and Yuri Vella and linguist Agrafena Pesikova. They are stories of the dead, of the drowned, of spirits and ghosts, and mount in an analysis reflecting the contrast of indigenous and Western culture and the resistance against the intrusion into the religion of the natives.