Ága (2018)

Directed by: Milko Lazarov | 96 minutes | drama | Actors: Mikhail Aprosimov, Feodosia Ivanova, Sergei Egorov, Galina Tikhonova, Afanasiy Kylaev

Somewhere at the end of the world, in the far north of our planet, lives the Inuit couple Nanook and Sedna. Life is serene, but hard. The weather-beaten pair pass the time foraging for food, mainly fish, and prop up their Yurt, a traditional round tent designed to make living conditions as bearable as possible. The only indication that they are not the last people on Earth are the fog trails left by planes flying over. The two reindeer once kept reindeer, but nothing can be seen of that anymore. Their struggle for survival has only gotten tougher over time. Feelings have been put in the waiting room. Still, there is something lurking between the two.

Now that Sedna is getting older, sickly even, her head increasingly returns to daughter Ága, who left a long time ago to try her luck in civilization. A mortal sin, according to father Nanook. Family is everything, they won’t let you down. While Sedna increasingly reminisces about the past, Nanook turns his back on her. The past is there to be left alone or, at most, to learn a lesson from it. Traditions should be honored, the rest should be forgotten. Their relationship is increasingly characterized by a stubborn silence.

All of this takes place in a beautiful widescreen, which only further magnifies the isolation. The wide horizons are incessantly blanketed with snow, with the occasional protagonist braving the elements to find food or shelter. The environment is made even bigger, by having parts of scenes played off screen. As a spectator, it is a search for humanity. The decor seems empty, but for the two it is all they have. A world of mostly united happiness.

The stationary camera records everything at an appropriate distance. This observational character makes ‘Ága’ very much like a documentary (it will not be a coincidence that the main character Nanook is named after one of the first documentaries ever made: ‘Nanook of the North’ from 1922). Although that is aesthetically pleasing, the characters become quite impenetrable. Their emotions come mainly from dialogue. As a result, the involvement also remains somewhat remote. The step to penetrating fiction is not made.

‘Ága’ is above all a contemplative film that should focus more on showing the impressive way of life of the two main characters (and effectively making a comparison with today’s hurried life) than on putting the main characters themselves under the magnifying glass.