Yakut film grabs Arctic festival main award
© RIA Novosti. Ilya Pitalev

Yakut film grabs Arctic festival main award

A film from Yakutia, Kerel. Invisible Beauty, has won the main prize of the Golden Raven international Arctic film festival, which took place on October 9-15, the website of the administration of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) reported.

The international program of the festival's main competition featured six movies filmed in the Arctic region: Sami Blood (Sweden), The Find (Russia and Finland), Kerel. Invisible Beauty (Yakutia, Russia), Nadezhda (Hope): A Race at the Edge of the World (Chukotka, Russia), Angry Inuk (Canada), and Fire in the Wind (Yakutia, Russia). The Russian short film competition featured 11 films made in various regions of Russia.

The films competed for the festival's main awards, the Grand Golden Raven and the Small Golden Raven, with the statuettes made from walrus tusk by a local bone carver. The winners were chosen by viewers through voting. The film Kerel. Invisible Beauty by directors Valentin Makarov and Ilya Portnyagin from Yakutia received the most votes, while Yevgeny Nikitin's The Arrow was announced the winner of the short film competition.  

"For the Union of Filmmakers and for me personally, the Golden Raven festival is of great significance. It is important that the festival is held for viewers to see films from various northern regions and learn more about the life of the indigenous peoples of the North not only in Russia but also in Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the United States. This is the way a common cultural space is created and a link between residents and peoples of the North. The festival gives film directors the opportunity to feel a powerful response from the audience and realize that their films are of interest not only for local viewers but also for those in Russia in one of its remotest regions," said Filipp Abryutin, director of the festival program.

Chukotka's Golden Raven international Arctic film festival is organized by the Russian Union of Filmmakers, Chukotka's department of education, culture and sports, and the Okrkinovideoprokat film distribution company. There are plans to hold the festival annually and make it a major cultural event in Russia's Arctic region.