Paradis
Alexander Abaturov
France, Switzerland | 2022 | 88 min
Swiss Premiere
Language : Sakha
Subtitles : English, French
“Coined in 2015, ‘control zone’ is the official term in Russian federal law that designates remote or sparsely populated regions. In these areas, the authorities are not obligated to intervene when there is a forest fire, if the cost of extinguishing it exceeds that of the estimated damages. In Yakutia, in north-eastern Siberia, more than 80% of the region has been deemed a control zone. At the edge of these ‘zones’ stands the village of Shologon.” Upon these words, the film plunges us into this immense region populated by a handful of inhabitants, plagued by a megafire which they call the “Dragon”. Together but alone, they have no other choice if they are to survive than to learn how to fight this unusual enemy and counter it with many stratagems. In this fiery yellow and blue landscape, hope is slim, yet it also consumes. What if a children’s story also had a role to play? Will the spirit of the wind or the snow blow over Shologon? Progressively, it is man’s resilience when confronted with nature that Alexander Abaurov comes to film: “Paradise means that the place where we live is our paradise. Life in Siberia may be a little harsher than elsewhere, but this is our paradise, and we have no other. We don’t have a plan B. We have what we have. Paradise is not an imaginary place to which we aspire. No, it’s here. It is the here and now.”
Charlotte Serrand
The Son, 2018
Sleeping Souls, 2013