Elämän äidit

The film Paradise Lost, shot in 1992 and 1993, follows the daily life of Njubitja Yaptik’s nomadic family in the Yamal peninsula in Eastern Siberia. After the film was finished, we continued to receive news from the family with whom we had spent a year travelling. Times were becoming hard, they said. At the beginning of the new film, Njubitja, the father, tells us a legend. An ancestor of his had accidentally killed a man and was forced to flee by boat with his family to the remote region where Njubitja now lives. From the myth, we then come to today’s harsh realities: the family is gradually falling apart and losing its possessions, including all the reindeer. The film centres round Mjusena and Tatyana, the mother and daughter. Two strong women who wander from one area to another without ever finding their rightful place. They, finally, have no choice but to work on a state-owned farm, leading an existence that is in total contradiction with the independence they had known.'( Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio)