Welcome to New Karabash
A man in his prime, who has been active for 30 years in local politics, is building a house for his four children and his wife. He is committed to the community. Isn't he a ‘real guy’?
A drunken rock musician keeps himself just as upright in his life with subordinated work. But he sees himself as a ‘little god’.
A young mother, bored with her everyday life as a library clerk, dreams of becoming a pop singer. Her husband, meanwhile, works hard in a nearby factory to keep the family alive.
A shy mullah wants to drive out alcohol from the believers in the city, but they run away from him.
All these people live in a former gold digger settlement in western Siberia, known as Karabash.
Karabash is the home for these people, while it is the hell on earth for many people. In 1996 the city was called the dirtiest place in the world by UNESCO. Copper has been mined here for a hundred years and the resultant poison released into the environment. Life in Karabash today is already as we imagine it in our worst visions of the future. From birth to death, Karabash's inhabitants inhale toxic materials that attack their mucous membranes, leading to respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and congenital malformations. The nature around the factory is dead and the waters are blood-red— it is as if the Apocalypse has just become reality.
But the inhabitants do not take any notice of the situation. They claim that life here is wonderful. They seem to be grandmasters of repression. It is precisely here that the government, using considerable financial resources, wants to create a second Switzerland, which would be clean, tidy and rich. Can you believe that? Is this the beginning of a more humane life in Karabash or just the crowning glory of the cover-up?
A drunken rock musician keeps himself just as upright in his life with subordinated work. But he sees himself as a ‘little god’.
A young mother, bored with her everyday life as a library clerk, dreams of becoming a pop singer. Her husband, meanwhile, works hard in a nearby factory to keep the family alive.
A shy mullah wants to drive out alcohol from the believers in the city, but they run away from him.
All these people live in a former gold digger settlement in western Siberia, known as Karabash.
Karabash is the home for these people, while it is the hell on earth for many people. In 1996 the city was called the dirtiest place in the world by UNESCO. Copper has been mined here for a hundred years and the resultant poison released into the environment. Life in Karabash today is already as we imagine it in our worst visions of the future. From birth to death, Karabash's inhabitants inhale toxic materials that attack their mucous membranes, leading to respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and congenital malformations. The nature around the factory is dead and the waters are blood-red— it is as if the Apocalypse has just become reality.
But the inhabitants do not take any notice of the situation. They claim that life here is wonderful. They seem to be grandmasters of repression. It is precisely here that the government, using considerable financial resources, wants to create a second Switzerland, which would be clean, tidy and rich. Can you believe that? Is this the beginning of a more humane life in Karabash or just the crowning glory of the cover-up?
The Long War
Organized by the Ministry of Defence and by the personal order of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the train exhibition “Syrian Breakthrough” transports the spoils of war from Syria around the country. The train stopped at all the major cities in Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok, from Vladivostok to Murmansk and then back again to Moscow. 62 cities in all.
Two-hour exhibitions took place directly on the railway tracks at the stations. The convoys comprised of twenty wagons with 500 pieces of military hardware which the Russian soldiers had “seized from the terrorists” in Palmyra, Aleppo and Deir-ez-Zor. Among the exhibits were pilotless drones, improvised explosive devices (IED’s), grenades, mines, food rations, chemical weapons specimens and goods from the army surplus store.
For the visitors were offered military orchestras, song and dance ensemble performances and food from food kitchens. During the exhibition mobile army recruitment points were there at the railway stations for people to join up to become professional soldiers.
The train with the spoils of war from Syria is an attempt to create a new, modern myth about the resurrection of Russia’s military power. If earlier we saw only the virtual achievements, but now the train is started to be a visual demonstration of power and strength. They have to Fix their Greatness. For me this is the dangerous way in real war. The way to turn a fictional war into a real war. Yet the militarization of attitudes in the country robs people of their future.
I would like to show ordinary life of these people. How they live in their everyday surroundings.
The train will connect many ordinary life human stories.
This documentary ‘road movie’ carefully explores how people’s attitudes changed after they visited this unusual travelling exhibition of trophy weapons. Was the “Syrian Breakthrough” tour some kind of catalyst for people in Russia in making decisions for them and their children’s future.
Two-hour exhibitions took place directly on the railway tracks at the stations. The convoys comprised of twenty wagons with 500 pieces of military hardware which the Russian soldiers had “seized from the terrorists” in Palmyra, Aleppo and Deir-ez-Zor. Among the exhibits were pilotless drones, improvised explosive devices (IED’s), grenades, mines, food rations, chemical weapons specimens and goods from the army surplus store.
For the visitors were offered military orchestras, song and dance ensemble performances and food from food kitchens. During the exhibition mobile army recruitment points were there at the railway stations for people to join up to become professional soldiers.
The train with the spoils of war from Syria is an attempt to create a new, modern myth about the resurrection of Russia’s military power. If earlier we saw only the virtual achievements, but now the train is started to be a visual demonstration of power and strength. They have to Fix their Greatness. For me this is the dangerous way in real war. The way to turn a fictional war into a real war. Yet the militarization of attitudes in the country robs people of their future.
I would like to show ordinary life of these people. How they live in their everyday surroundings.
The train will connect many ordinary life human stories.
This documentary ‘road movie’ carefully explores how people’s attitudes changed after they visited this unusual travelling exhibition of trophy weapons. Was the “Syrian Breakthrough” tour some kind of catalyst for people in Russia in making decisions for them and their children’s future.