The 11th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film

222 Them, Us and Skitskoj (OT: Oni, my a Skitskoj - dialog ve střižně)

Them, Us and Skitskoj - A Dialogue in the Editing Room (OT: Oni, my a Skitskoj - dialog ve střižně (222)

16:00, Friday 03rd July, Theatre A

The island Skitskoj is located on the North of the European part of Russia, in an inaccessible forestland on Pizma River, in Pechora river basin. The Oldbelievers community lives there – hidden from civilization, the surrounding world full of changes.

The documentary traces the progress of the transforming relationship between the Oldbelievers and us – the filmmakers. The very central point of the film is our meeting.

The documentary joins two stories together – the “dramatic” meeting which happened there – on the Skitskoj island, and the calm inner “meeting” after the return – in the broad “dialogue in the editing room” while finishing the film.

It is a film about inner barriers, “island”-isolation, fear and prejudices, on both banks, inside us and inside them. It is a story about the effort to build a common joining “bridge”.