Chukotka Gold

In recent months the media (including Russian Life) have been awash in discussions of the controversial film Leviathan, which takes place along Russia’s northern Murman coast. In April, another film set in the Arctic will hit Russian screens. This one seems aimed at provoking nostalgia rather than controversy.

Set in Chukotka, Alexander Melnikov’s film Territory is based on the popular Soviet-era book of the same name by Oleg Kuvayev and chronicles the Soviet search for gold in that distant region in the 1940s and 1950s. The film was financed by the Natural Resources Ministry.

Ivan Kobilyakov, who worked on the film as a production assistant, caught up with Melnikov and talked with him about the film for Russian Life.