Authentic view of the Russian people - Territoire de la Liberté - Film review

The following review of Territore de la Liberté is by film student Fanny Leyvraz - This film will be shown today Weds 30 April at the Salle Communale  at 12:00. Reservations here  “Territory of Freedom” directed by Alexander Kuznetsov is a joyful, humanist depiction of how life goes in the Stolby nature reserve, with its traditional Russian culture. A place where men, women and children all singing together and living life simply to the fullest.

This is a second movie for the Russian director, after having made a film called “Territory of Love”, this time he addresses a more political and contemporary theme, “Territory of Freedom”.   The nature reserve has been the target of violence, as it has been on previous revolutionary periods and there are some heated debates about it.   Many  “isbas” (little ascetic cabins in the reserve, where anyone is welcome to come and go) burned down, but as one of the old wise men tells us, the Stolbysts will continue to rebuild them, and will keep on living in the stopped-in-time forests and mountains of Siberia. Freedom and community Cooking, drinking, singing and cutting wood and most importantly climbing the summits are the main activities in this unrefined-by-mankind place. Everyone is part of the same community; needless to say, the simple and direct interactions of these people can make some of us technological-social-maniacs envious. When the time for midnight baths in frozen water arrives, everyone goes, not only the strong old men, but also the young women. Laughter, stories of the ancients, serious discussions about life and freedom, and moments of grace are all part of the everyday life in the nature reserve.

Using skillfully close-ups, and very mobile shots for the nature reserve part where the Russians act and talk freely, and countering them with fixated scenes from the city, where the people are restrained by the military, contained in a limited space, Alexander Kuznetsov manages to give us an authentic vision of the Russian people, without their politics, just with their cultural rites, their recklessness and slight folly of being alive. Some scenes with a little girl and her alpinist father are just delightful. And the snow, ever-present, and yet discreet, dresses the landscape with a soft sugary coat, making dreamlike pictures of a place where the industrial society hasn’t yet set foot.