Isa, Poeg ja Puha Toorum
Estonia,
1997, 90 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Mark Soosaar
- cam
-
Mark Soosaar
- editor
-
Mark Soosaar
- source
-
Weiko Saawa Film, P.O. Box 150, 3600 Parno, Estonia. FAX: 372-44-30774. EMAIL: docfest@chaplin.ee
- gga award
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Silver Spire, Film & Video: Sociology—International
OTHER
The anguish of the native Khanty people of Western Siberia resonates through this remarkable film. Coerced into turning over their lands to Russian corporations willing to resort to lie and steal to provide fuel to a rapidly expanding post-Cold War industry, this traditionally nomadic people has now been reduced to fewer than 4,000. Winner of the Prix Nanook in 1997, Mark Soosaar records their last days in a gripping family drama, played out in long monologues of anguish the savvy filmmaker allows to run till the soul of the characters seems to be spread across the screen. At the film’s center is the heartbreaking story of Shosho, one of the last of the Khanty shamans, his wife Tohe and their son Petja, who has abandoned his life with the Khanty to become the director of the oil and gas companies’ “program on indigenous peoples.” His parents see his betrayal in the traditional terms of a “bad child”: he never visits, he doesn’t look after them like a good son. But it’s clear that his actions have more devastating and far-reaching consequences. The glare of the endless fields of snow and the flames from the refinery smoke stacks are both blinding; neither Petja nor most of the Khanty can see the rich culture that they give away along with their lands.
—Amy Holberg
FACTOID #85
In 1996, Harvey Keitel was the first recipient of the Peter J. Owens Award, honoring “brilliance, independence and honesty” in acting. Honest he was. During the clip show at his tribute Keitel, unhappy with one of the clips, began waving his arms and shouting until the screen went black. The screen lit up with a new clip and the tribute continued.
