Alone, 180 days on lake Baikal I SLICE I Full Documentary

irkutsk a siberian town 60 kilometers from lake baikal it's february and i'm standing on the threshold of my dream i'd vow to withdraw deep into the woods before my 40th birthday and experience an existence pared down to a few vital essentials people want to change the world but all i'm looking for is to change myself this blue van is packed with six months of food supplies fishing gear vodka cigars and books lake baikal let's get the statistics and superlatives out of the way 700 kilometers long 50 kilometers wide 1500 meters deep the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world [Music] thick forests and not a soul on its banks the murmur of the world doesn't reach these shores in winter a blanket of ice a meter thick covers its surface solid enough to drive a van across [Music] for three days we glide northwards will i find here what i've been seeking during my twenty years of travel a purpose a rise on dead i feel like i'm sinking into the void [Music] [Music] [Laughter] when russian trappers arrive at their cabins the tradition is to toss a bottle or two of vodka into the snow [Music] when the bottles re-emerge from the thawing snow it's a surest sign than the swallows that winter is finally over and mainly it's a way to keep from drinking it all at once [Music] no roads no neighbors 500 kilometers from town i'll finally see if i have an interior life in a cabin you can do what you want without the scrutiny of others this freedom is dangerous to keep from going mad the hermit must be disciplined each day has the same immutable rhythm in the morning i write read and rest and enjoy a few smokes what if my cabin was nothing but a meditation chamber relocated here in the tiger books are my best friends they sit there quietly ready to give me everything i've got cameras nietzsche schopenhauer and then some detective novels because you need a breather every once in a while [Applause] afternoons are dedicated to the tasks which ensure my survival the forest gives me its warmth for the stove you have to figure one five meter tree trunk per month working warms you up i'm getting used to life at 30 below [Applause] it takes over an hour to reach the water i've come here to keep time with the swing of an axe and an ice pick [Applause] oh [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] so [Applause] the cabin's first occupants built a banya a russian sauna a hundred meters from the cabin once a week i purged the vodka from my body the banya is like life in russia 80 degrees inside minus 20 outside nothing gentle about this world [Applause] um [Music] to break up the solitude i pretend to have a long distance dinner with my friends i summon their presence in my thoughts [Music] hello um [Music] [Music] is [Music] you conversing with nature means taking in the unity of the world rather than trying to pick out its fractures it means acknowledging every manifestation of the cosmos from the rising sun to the morning bird [Music] for kingdom i have a forest for dungeon a mountain [Music] solitude is also what others lose by not being there the very instant beauty manifests itself [Music] the mountains i admire them they stand there indifferent content to be [Music] all you have to do is sit and contemplate the poem [Music] simply glide wherever the spirit guides you [Music] [Music] the ice is alive the frozen expanse is shot through with an electric lattice work that crackles with nervous energy [Music] the silence is broken by thuds the echo of distant explosions dozens of kilometers away [Music] these crackling sounds keep me company they wake me at night they set the tempo during the day the gods allow us a glimpse of a mysterious script [Music] in three months time these works will be carried off by the heat ice is a testament destined to be forgotten [Music] [Applause] so so one morning overcome with nostalgia i head south to have a drink with friends who live 60 kilometers from my cabin [Music] i cross battlefields where violent impacts have upset the inertia of the old lake the compressed ice wreaks havoc on the frozen surface the spring thaw will put this tumult back in order [Music] i walk for three days it's impossible not to think of the dead thousands of russians have disappeared through cracks in the lake do their drowned souls manage to reach the heavens despite the icy blanket [Music] abandoned cabins provide me with shelter for the night dissidents sought refuge here during the soviet era i wonder if their ghosts have survived the cold [Music] i have a stove to keep me from shivering and a chess game to keep me company [Music] tonight despite the bishop's heroic effort it's white loses [Music] hello [Music] foreign [Applause] on the third day i encounter some men on the ice fishermen reaping the gifts of winter [Applause] next summer their meat will be kept in this vault ice is more precious than gold [Music] where sergey lives [Music] [Applause] and his wife natasha have lived on these banks for 20 years she's a biologist and he man's the nature reserve i met them during my previous stays here they're the ones who inspired foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] oh foreign [Music] i'm jealous of these two who found happiness in other words their place in a little corner of this earth and the certitude their life wouldn't be better anywhere else a few kilometers from sergey's place is the weather station it lacks some of the luster from back in the soviet era but it's home to a soul named she landed here by chance but would rather die than leave foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] when there's a lull in the conversation they have a poetic way of describing it foreign [Music] [Laughter] is [Laughter] foreign i head home i've already been away four days i'm eager to get back to the cabin in late april the snow melts and the sky starts to brood all alone i continue my journey across time in my wooden vessel ice is what keeps track of time it weakens and wastes away soon spring will deal the fatal blow and then a great joy a forest ranger passes and entrusts me with ica and beck five-month-old brother and sister pops these puppies become my masters they teach me how to disregard the future and inhabit the only land that counts the present [Music] on may the 22nd at 5 pm the ice breaks the wind rips down the mountains and sinks its teeth into the plane in 10 minutes the water regains its freedom nothing will ever be the same again [Music] in one breath the forces of spring have foiled winter's efforts to impose an order on the world the lake is suffering and doesn't realize there are men at its bedside [Music] so [Applause] the days pass and june arrives i used to ask myself what time was guilty of to always make it want to race off so quickly but for now i let the hours flow through me silence is the sound time makes as it passes i dream of writing a book i would call in loss of searched time [Music] it's the awakening the right begins fragile forces pierce the earth [Music] life flows and its timidity is a prelude to triumph the ants stream down the flanks of their cities [Music] and the mountainsides are streaked with lively streams impatient as girls to join the lake the mountain wants to live [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh it's getting on [Music] i wander through my kingdom each day exploring further and further i'm not seeking to know it but to merge with it [Music] [Music] so [Music] the cabin is a laboratory a place where visions of nature are transformed into pages of writing for this alchemy you need eyes ink smoke and alcohol [Music] [Music] i was plagued by black thoughts but nihilism can't stand up against the energy of the baikal spring [Music] [Music] the um be i tell myself a hermit is someone who grills his thoughts on a campfire with a dog to keep his hands warm [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] hmm [Music] so [Music] um [Music] [Music] [Music] until now i'd lived furiously i asked the kilometers to calm my fever [Music] i dreamed of dying in motion for that years ago i crossed eurasia from north to south in a forced march [Music] [Music] foreign i was playing the restless wolf now i'm the hibernating bear today i ask immobility to give me what perpetual movement no longer could peace so [Applause] sometimes boredom sets in boredom is the blood that flows from the wound of time to overcome boredom you must simply welcome what comes and be wary of hope don't expect anything and regard each instant as a celebration [Music] um [Music] the cabin reconciled me with time the least i could do was let it pass [Music] fishing is the ultimate pact with acceptance at the end of the line there might be a fish and if there isn't never mind [Music] change [Music] and then july summer ducks return from southern china lake baikal becomes the stage for the mating game avid lovers take up everywhere unlike man nature doesn't assume it has all the time in the world [Music] ephemerality has been around since eternity [Music] birch i entrust you with this message give my greetings to the sky [Music] i don't especially like to leave any traces behind but i'm happy to scatter a few sentences [Music] he who sought to get below the surface of things [Music] he who sought a life filled with twists and turns [Music] he who sought to taste the light before reaching eternal shadow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] da da [Music] [Music] and then one day it's time to go back i'm going to leave ike and beck in the hands of the rangers i arrived here not knowing if i'd stay i leave knowing i'll come back [Music] my retreat taught me this in life you must simply ask the spirit of a place to help you master time [Music] [Applause] [Applause] so [Music] you

Channel: SLICE

Views: 406,223

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, shortdoc, shortdocs, slice, slicedocs

Id: 8zskcSA0bfM

Length: 47min 30sec (2850 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 09 2022