“I am Ambasi Vera’s daughter. Russians call me Nadezhda. My real name is Neko. I am the last in the line of Veras.”
Neko is the last hope in her Siberian clan, part of the Nenet people who are still living off the land and not integrated into the 1980's Soviet society. She's grown up in a world where nature is revered and respected, home is a tent and tundra the floor, salmon is food, and a reindeer costs 100 salmon. "How to know 100 salmon," she asks her father. "You have ten fingers, make ten piles of ten salmon each, that is the number 100 you need to buy a reindeer." She is named by the eldest shaman as the future shaman, and she is the last of her family. "Pity you weren't a boy. Why weren't you a boy?"
Her mother has integrated into the "greater" Soviet society and returns to rip Neko from the family that has always cared for her, to place her in a Soviet boarding school where she can have the benefit of learning Russian and communism, and forget how to fish and make clothes from animal hydes.
The film alternates between the documentary of real-life Neko (whose Soviet name became Nadezhda Pyrerko) in modern day Russia, with dramatized reenactment of her youth, based also on co-writer/co-director Anastasia Lapsui's own memories.
I could begin to identify with her plight, having been placed for 10 weeks into a French school without prior knowledge of French language or culture, and also being a pagan/nature worshipper whom few if any of my friends and family have ever understood as such. Just a different culture.
So, Neko's clan is basically lost to globalization, but other clans of the Nenet people live on (for now) in Siberia, still trying to avoid displacement by hungry Russian oil companies.
The theatre was full mostly of young children from school excursions, off to learn about children in other cultures and ask questions of the writers/directors after the viewing, at this world premier of the film.
http://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php?film_id=20103154
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1380232/
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