Three villages combined in one timeless space – somewhere beyond the polar circle. On the Kola peninsula in Northern Russia, a few dozen people still live in their traditional timber houses surrounded by water, forests and sand. Nature provides for them, mainly the White sea, but fish populations have been dwindling over the years. Fewer and fewer people want to stay; many move to the city, leaving behind their homes. Over time these houses turn into spectres from the past, ownerless and lonely ruins that only spring back to life by playing grandchildren, visiting their grandparents over the summer. The hamlets Tetrino, Chavanga and Kuzomen seem to head toward the fate of so many other villages all over Russia: a slow but inevitable extinction. Cut off from vital infrastructure, almost forgotten by regional governance, these people have to keep together to cope with their everyday struggle. And when a mass fire breaks out, threatening to ravage the entire peninsula, they have to fight their last stand.

Director: Evgeny Kalachikhin
Writer: Anastasia Gorokhova
Producer: Nina Bärmann
Music: Dilyara Gabitova
Sound: Dima Grishkov
Editing: Evgeny Kalachikhin, Nina Bärmann (BFS), Alexey Prokhorov
DOP: Aleksandra Medianikova