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?