A Bride of the Seventh Heaven

At birth, Syarda was promised as a bride to Num, the highest god of the Nenets. It was an isolating fate, as men were afraid to approach her and when her parents passed away, her loneliness deepened. Wistfulness became a normal part of her life, but she did not abstain from seizing any opportunity that arose. The ever-present specter of Num and her self-determined ways kept her to the predestined forlorn path. Now an elderly lady, Syarda recounts the story of her life to a blind young girl who alleviates her solitude. Set in the stark scenery of the Yamal peninsula, in a melancholic yet brightly-hued aura, Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio bring forth a personal narrative that engages with emotional matters from within this culture. A story connected to Anastasia's own experience as a young woman, growing up in the spiritual world of the Nenets on the Yamal peninsula. (Berlinale)