Chelsea Tuggle

Shot in and around Yakutsk, in a remote region of Siberia, this film wrestles with the complex realities of a people and place facing continual, rapid transformation under Russia’s drive for resource extraction.

Svetlana Romanova and Chelsea Tuggle traverse grassy meadows, birch forests, and snowy taiga through rural stretches of the Central Yakutian Lowlands, a transition zone between Central and Eastern Siberia. While following the tidal direction of the Lena River, which flows north to the Arctic Ocean, elements begin to emerge: familial memories, encounters with animals, the richness of the region’s natural resources, and the realities of their violent extraction.