How People of Kamtchatka Survive at -30°C in Winter | SLICE | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] Kamchatka the Russian Far East a land of volcanic fire and subarctic ice eight time zones from Moscow the Kamchatka Peninsula is roughly the size of my native California but until a few months ago I couldn't even place it on a map then I met a French anthropologist named Nastasia Nastasia has spent the last 5 years between the libraries of Paris and the forest of Kamchatka she's been studying a family of indigenous people known as the aen after a 2-year absence she's back and she's invited me to accompany before leaving Paris Nastasia told me this family is much more to her than just another subject of her research the reason she's back in Kamchatka today is to introduce them to her one-year-old daughter Isa our journey into the forest begins here at the foot of the three volcanoes that Tower overcome chat's capital petropavlosk a city stuck between the shadow of the Soviets shattered promises and the West's Allure of a brighter future apparently driving across the Kamchatka Peninsula and onto native lands is not a simple Affair the roads are more dirt track than well-maintained Highway Euros slav is Russian an ex-military man but he's married to an aen his in-laws have given him the mission of driving us into the forest when he saw all of our equipment and supplies urusov called in for some extra support his best friend [Music] [Applause] oeg what PR fore 3:30 a.m. not exactly an ideal time to begin a trip into the woods but with over 700 km of icy roads in front of us urav and ol are anxious to get started Oso's stepdaughter vaselina is joining us she spent her childhood in the forest before moving with her mother to the city [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Nastasia has already traveled into the forest with vaselina but it's the first time she's made the trip with [Music] [Music] yourl after 11 hours on the road we finally arrive at Sanu the first of two security gates separating the event from the rest of the world the event are not the only people using this land it's both a military zone and a nature reserve other than soldiers and miners the only people who can pass through these gates are nastasia's friends just when I start asking myself if this road actually has has an end we finally reach our meeting point where Nastasia spots two familiar faces Ivan and his uncle arum over the last week Nastasia has filled me in on their lives their return into the forest their silence there's no time for small talk the temperature is -3 C it's time to go now comes the hard part we have over 100 km before our next warm meal I admit I'm a bit skeptical about our new mode of transportation and apparently I'm not alone [Music] [Music] spe according to Nastasia for the last two centuries the event roamed these forests following the seasons and the natural migration Paths of their reindeer during the communist regime most of an families were forced to abandon their animals and settle in small villages and state run Farms when the Soviet Union collapsed ivonne's family decided to head back into the forest today their clan of nearly 50 family members live in four different hunting camps spread across a territory the size of Switzerland we're going to the furthest one Ivan's [Music] homean 5:30 p.m. the stinging cold has frozen everyone's senses the snowmobiles are overheating and apparently euros slav and his in-laws have some unsettled [Music] differences I've completely lost track of time all I can do now is hope that yvon knows his way through these Woods in the middle of the [Music] [Music] night finally Ivan's home and his mother Daria it's for her that Anastasia has brought her daughter from so far [Music] [Music] away foreign fore spech [Music] fore nine people in a two- room cabin with a baby and a cat I have a feeling it'll take a while for me to settle in Nastasia on the other hand seems right at home Nastasia undertook her first field studies over 10 years ago in Alaska the effects of capitalism on Native communities during her research she started to wonder about the indigenous communities in the postcommunist world on the other side of the bearing Straits a few years later she met Daria 50 years ago tan was a state-run communist farm called a SOS with its own post office and a school nearly 50 people inhabited this small village in the middle of the forest economically unstable in the 1970s the Soviet government slowly lost interest in Fen and abandoned the inhabitants today Daria and her children are the only people living on the [Music] premises like most indigenous children at the time Daria was forced to leave her parents and her land after finishing her studies in a small village she took a job at the local pharmacy but when the Soviet system shattered Daria convinced the family that it was time to start a new life in the place they knew better than any other The Forest of Kamchatka Daria and her children are totally dependent upon the forest during the summer months they spend every possible moment roaming the woods Hunting Fishing and Gathering whatever they can find to survive in winter it's rare to see any animals or even a fish [Music] The [Applause] The J some survival in the woods requires organization every member of the family has assigned their own daily chores this morning for ION it's time to gather wood a task he'd surely be thrilled to delicate to his enthusiastic brother-in-law is the problem that pull bugs [Music] in [Music] P your r what more while I had my doubts back at the river Daria is obviously quite a fisherman tab what e if Daria and her family speak mostly Russian today Ian is their native language distant relatives of the Turk and mongolic people their ancestors migrated from Northeast Siberia to Kamchatka in the [Applause] 1840s the event culture and language thrived across the peninsula until the Soviets began a program of assimilation insisting that Russian become the official language for everyone [Music] spee fore speech spee for for [Music] [Music] after 2 weeks in the forest of thaen I'm beginning to understand nastasia's unique approach to anthropology immersing herself in the group Nastasia shares the intimacy of their daily lives in order to comprehend them from the inside refusing to impose her own time frame she patiently waits for the right moment then listens but foree Ivan is Daria's youngest son like his mother he grew up in the forest before going to school in the city but after a brief Taste of life in the Russian military he decided his place in the world was back in the forest Nastasia says that inan there is one crucial chore reserved for just one member of the family everyone knows the Devon is the [Music] Hunter [Music] spee Ivon hunts to feed the family but that's not all to pay for their bar Necessities he spends most of the winter setting up traps for an animal whose fur is one of the most popular fashion products in Europe today the Sable the sale of one of these animals Furs will help buy the family a little more gas tobacco sugar and [Music] power [Music] after a long trip across Russia this Sable skin will sell for a small fortune in Paris and Milan but if a trapped Sable is the sign of a successful day in the forest for Ivonne he refuses to head home without a fresh [Music] meal [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Happ spech speech so later that evening Nastasia confided that what fascinates her more than anything else in Ivan and Daria's decision to return to a life in the forest is that their choice might just be Reawakening the roots of a culture they nearly lost forever when Nastasia invited me into the forest I didn't exactly imagine it would be to witness the skinning of an animal in the middle of someone's kitchen with a few simple words Daria has just shown nasia that for the event animism or the belief that all animals plants rivers and forests have their own spiritual Essence is not a belief of the past [Music] [Music] just as we get used used to the seclusion of thaen we have visitors they call them the cousins pavick and chander like Daria the cousins live in the forest unlike Daria they're not on their own professional herders working for one of kamat's biggest companies they live in a temporary Camp 9 miles from thaen whenever they get a chance pavick and chander visit the family to trade some reindeer meat and a few of the company's less Savory meals [Music] Ivon and pavick have wandered around these Woods together for as long as they can remember today they never miss an opportunity to spend a little downtime at their favorite childhood fishing hole [Music] fore foreign fore [Applause] my dumb my dumb ass despite my initial fears urav is obviously earning his place among his in-laws he might be Russian but he never misses a chance to show his respect for the event and thanks to urav and the cousins we finally get to taste some freshly cut reindeer for what check fore [Applause] hey he hey he with wind gusts of over 130 kmph and temperatur is plummeting the cousins fear the worst for their reindeer they have no Cho choice but to race back to their herd about for the hours have become days and the storm is showing no signs of letting up when Daria was a child winter in the forest was harsh but usually predictable times have ch changed fore for spee [Music] they've been gone for several days and we have no news from pavick and chander the snow is deep and the visibility couldn't be worse but Daria insist we take a risk and try to check up on [Music] them the middle of a blizzard in the middle of a forest not exactly the most reassuring place to learn that the snowmobile is literally held together by a string it took a few extra hours but we we finally reach the cousin's [Music] UR get in now within minutes of entering their home it's obvious that pavick and chander have more important matters than a customary cup of warm tea the winds have died but the temperatures are still dropping it's time to head back to their reindeer the cousins are responsible for a herd of over 1,500 reindeer if the freezing temperatures don't threaten the weakest of the herd a thick layer of ice can quickly render access to food impossible pavic and chander spend hours every day checking and rechecking the depth of the tundra ice hurting the animals towards better conditions whenever necessary today the snow is thick but not too firm they might have to scratch a little deeper for their meals but the cousins reindeer are in good health foreign [Music] [Music] fore hey my T is getting [Laughter] take that fore for foreign foreign spee fore spee spe [Music] fore [Music] a [Music] fore spee spee spee the very best hi [Music] glass [Music] as the days pass by and the temperatures slowly rise we all slide into an unexpected but strangely comfortable routine the rhythm of the forest perhaps this is the reason Daria and her family have chosen Fen [Music] it [Music] for the decision has been made after 45 days in the forest tomorrow will finally leave Tien without saying why Daria tells me and Nastasia to follow her one last time into the woods [Music] [Music] pleasee [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] Daria has just given us the most precious of gifts a song from her pneumatic past it's perhaps Daria's way of showing us that we'll always have a place in the forest of [Music] [Applause] Kamchatka [Music] just before leaving estasia asked Daria if she intends to stay inan [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] I

Channel: SLICE

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

Id: lj1cZkZmjSk

Length: 50min 18sec (3018 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 24 2023