Kolyma - Road of Bones

Showings

TIFF Lightbox 3 Wed, May 2, 2018 6:30 PM
Innis Town Hall Thu, May 3, 2018 2:45 PM
Innis Town Hall Sat, May 5, 2018 8:30 PM
Film Info
Runtime:85
Copyright:2017
Country Listing:Russia
Germany
Premiere Status:North American Premiere
Rating:PG
Festival Info
Festival Year:2018
Language:Russian
Accessibility:Full Subtitles
Program Category:World Showcase
Film Subjects:Politics & Political Intrigue
Russia
War, Conflict & the Military
Cast/Crew Info
Director(s):Stanislaw Mucha
Producer(s):Gerd Haag
Editor(s):Emil Rosenberger
Writer(s):Stanislaw Mucha
Cinematography:Enno Endlicher
Composer:Eike Hosenfeld
Moritz Denis
Tim Stanzel
Sound:Tim Altrichter

Description

Black comedy meets dark history along "the Road of Bones," a 2,000-kilometre stretch of Siberian highway that's literally built on the bodies of Stalin's prisoners. Millions of political dissidents and innocent villagers were sentenced to die mining the gold of the desolate Kolyma region in Stalin's infamous prison camps. Spurred by his grandfather's stories, filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha travels the road, starting at Magadan's "gate to hell" and ending at Yakutsk, the coldest city in the world, capturing harsh landscapes through all four seasons. Literally stumbling over bones along the way, Mucha discovers a bizarre mix of eccentrics who have either never heard the word "Gulag" or have a terrifying firsthand experience of them. From a clueless hotdog vendor to an electrocution hobbyist, former guards and surviving prisoners live alongside one another on the world's longest burial ground. Irreverently comical and historically revelatory, this unique travelogue uncovers painful truths frozen in a not-so-distant past. Myrocia Watamaniuk