Directed by Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio • 2000 • Finland

A groundbreaking work of Indigenous cinema, Seven Songs of the Tundra is Anastasia Lapsui’s greatest tribute to her native Nenets culture. A nomadic people native to Siberia, the Nenets found their traditional way of life disrupted by the advent of Soviet power and its modernisation drives. Drawing on her own traumatic childhood experiences, with a profound connection to the severe, beautiful landscapes of the tundra and the Nenets’ reindeer-herding culture, Lapsui and her husband and filmmaking partner Markku Lehmuskallio blend documentary with performance and historical reconstruction in this seven-part chronicle of survival and adaptation. The resulting film captures with rare poetry the folklore of the Nenets and the complexities of their encounters with colonial society.

SEVEN SONGS FROM THE TUNDRA • СЁНИ’ СИ”ИВ ТАРКА
Directed by Anastasia Lapsui and Markku Lehmuskallio
Written by Anastasia Lapsui
Cinematography by Johannes Lehmuskallio

In Nenets and Russian with English subtitles