Beyond the White

In the middle of a breath-taking northern Russian landscape, only a few dozen people live in their traditional houses. They have learned to live with the wild nature of the White Sea, where sand, stone and water leave their mark. Cut off from modern infrastructure and almost forgotten by the regional administration, the people manage their daily lives with the simplest of means. Time seems to pass more slowly here than elsewhere, but even the last inhabited house will soon be empty. Evgeny Kalachikhin's debut film is characterised by melancholic beauty and social change. Beyond the White uses poetic images and atmospheric music to capture the fate of forgotten Russian villages. (Zurich Film Festival)