La Trace de Moloktchon

This is the story of the balok which belongs to Terenti, a reindeer hunter, chief of the brigade. In his balok, live his wife Maïa, his daughter Anna, his brother Vassia and his grandfather. Konstantin, Anna’s cousin, is staying with them for a few days in the tundra. It is early in the morning, and Anna has just awakened. The Trace of Moloktchon follows a family of Dolgans from sunrise to sunset. We make the acquaintance of these peoples of the Great North – the Tundra of Siberia – the last nomadic inhabitants of the Taïmyr. On May 9, 2000, the filmmaker set one fixed camera in the interior of a « balok », another outside on a swivel, where it could follow the progress of the sun with a little telescope. This made it possible to film on two screens, an intimate record of a typical day in the life of Maïa and the means developed by this thousand-year-old culture for meeting its daily needs, and at the same time, a panorama of her environment, the Tundra of Terenti. We discover on these two screens the way of life of these latterday animistic nomads. They went about their usual activities without apparent regard for or interest in the camera. The document that resulted from the experience of observing this necessarily minimal, yet efficient and adaptable way of dealing with life, is moving and informative.