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Time When Dreams Melt
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Filmmaker Name:
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Alexsei Vakhrushev
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Film Length:
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14 min
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Film Year:
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1996
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Duration:
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0-20 min
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Decade:
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1990s
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Language:
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in Russian
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Subtitle Language:
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with English subtitles
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Color:
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color
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Region:
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Asia
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Time When Dreams Melt was shot in Northeastern Russia in the Providenia District of the Chukchi Autonomous Region, an area occupied by the Yupik of Northeast Asia for millennia.
The protagonist of the film is a collective character who calls himself "Yupik-The True Man," the same way his ancestors referred to themselves. The story he tells is based on the life of the Yupik from earliest history to the present. Through his eyes, we experience contemporary life; the summer walrus hunt, life in the village and also the insistent memory of a vivid past, a childhood spent in harmony with the land before the turning point, the tragic year, 1958.
It was then that government policy forcefully removed the Yupik from their seashore villages to a bay near the administrative center of the area. The government made many promises to support the indigenous people which were never kept. Thus, the protagonist becomes a witness to the deaths of the old, the carriers of culture, and to the ensuing degradation of his people.
He tries to find the result of the much-publicized removal of his community from their native places. The conclusion of the protagonist is paradoxical; in spite of the great loss of human life and spirit, they have managed to retain basic elements of traditional culture and ethnic identity. They hope to return to the land of their ancestors and recover the past strength of their people.
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Moscow International Film Festival, 1997
French Embassy Prize, Int'l Visual Anthropology Festival, Parnu, 1997
International Film Festival, "Man and the Sea", Vladivostok, Russia, 1997
Note on Term "Eskimo":
This film makes use of the name "Eskimo." While once broadly applied, it is a perjorative term and considered offensive. While the inception of the word is a matter of debate, it is no longer used or applied in our film catalog. The context in which the term appears in this series is an acknowledged relic of a colonial past, presented in its original version. DER apologizes for any offense caused.
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