Life of Ivanna

Passionate and strong, Ivanna is a young Nenets woman and mother of five children. Raising them on her own in the harsh environment of the Arctic tundra, she lives according to Nenets traditions: Herding reindeer through the vast tundra in small nomadic communities, moving their houses on sleds and enduring extreme temperatures. Ivanna does the work traditionally reserved for two people, both husband and wife, in order for her family to survive. The father of her five children, Gena, has become an alcoholic and can no longer abide by the harsh rules of the tundra. But the fast-deteriorating conditions of her life in the tundra force Ivanna to take her life in her own hands and emigrate to the city. Both an emancipatory drama and a melancholic requiem for a lost way of life, the film depicts, with great intimacy, the feelings of a woman undergoing a huge transition and offers poetic insight into an almost primal culture.