IMMORTAL

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, though the prison doors were flung open at Apatiti, a former forced labour camp, the inmates chose to stay, settling there permanently and starting families. Their lives are still determined by a strict regimen that also extends to the children, who are essentially born into the system. Without passing judgement and with a sensitive gaze, Ksenia Okhapkina observes their everyday existence. Young dancers practice with pained expressions. The clattering of the dancing shoes gives way to the thunderous reverberation of gunshots from a training camp where young soldiers learn how to handle their weapons. In a steady alternation between these two settings, the children’s different acquired movements are juxtaposed with moments in which the adults endure, as if frozen in place themselves in their icy surroundings. What emerges is a portrait of collective fate. Despite its oppressive atmosphere, the film manages to depict its protagonists’ ideologies with a concise, painterly intensity while repeatedly finding a subtle way to resolve the harshness of the discipline, which determines daily life here. An impressive, painstakingly composed piece of cinema.