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Fata Morgana

NATIVe - Indigenous Cinema 2018
© Markku Lehmuskallio
A wide scope of documentary imagery and animation mixed masterfully by seasoned film-makers Lapsui and Lehmuskallio provide a sharp look into the recent history of the Chukchi people, their colonisation and modern-day survival. The plot is threaded by Kymyrultyne’s tale of a Chukchi woman who now lives in a post-communist pre-fabricated city and teaches her native language to displaced Chukchi fellows. She is very familiar with her people’s history and mythology and vividly narrates it from her unique female perspective. In the grey city, the ghastly presence of a lost way of life has taken its toll on Kymyrultyne, despite her idealism. The cruelty of the colonizers towards the region and its Indigenous inhabitants is narrated objectively and without judgement, yet with great emotion. In this post-modern experiment in film-making, the masterful Nenet director uses irony accentuated by a contemporary soundtrack to match the vast story-telling richness of her Arctic culture.
by Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio
with Ida Vladimirovna Kulikova, Victoria Kerginvat, Ylena Tynano, Xenya Nutave Finland 2005 Chukchi, Russian, Finnish 59’

With

  • Ida Vladimirovna Kulikova
  • Victoria Kerginvat
  • Ylena Tynano
  • Xenya Nutave

Crew

Directors Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio
Cinematography Johannes Lehmuskallio
Music Tuomas Laurinen
Editing Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio

Produced by

Giron Filmi Oy

Photos

Anastasia Lapsui

Born in 1944 on the Yamal Peninsula, she has been working with Markku Lehmuskallio since the 1990s. While their initial focus was on documentary film, they have since developed an interest in film-making that dramatises legends and draws on Anastasia’s own experience growing up, with a particular focus on the Nenets. They already screened Seven Songs from the Tundra and A Bride of the Seventh Heaven at Forum and NATIVe.

Filmography

2000 Seitsemän laulua tundralta (Seven Songs from the Tundra) 2002 Elämän äidit (Mothers of Life) 2003 Jumalan morsian (A Bride of the Seventh Heaven) 2005 Fata Morgana 2010 Sukunsa viimeinen (Pudana – Last of the Line)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018

Markku Lehmuskallio

Born in 1938 in Finland. His film Korpinpolska was screened at the 1980 Berlinale at Competition. In 1983 he presented Skierri – Land of the Dwarf Birk at Panorama. Since the 1990s he has been working together with Anastasia Lapsui. After several appearances at Forum, in 2010 they presented Pudana – Last of the Line, their first film in Generation.

Filmography

2000 Seitsemän laulua tundralta (Seven Songs from the Tundra) 2002 Elämän äidit (Mothers of Life) 2003 Jumalan morsian (A Bride of the Seventh Heaven) 2005 Fata Morgana 2010 Sukunsa viimeinen (Pudana – Last of the Line)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018