Home -> Festival -> 2009 Festival Films -> Vernaya
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 Vernaya (Faithful) | Documentary Directed by: Nastia Tarasova & Irina Shatalova 2008 | 27m | Russian Federation | www.vimeo.com/albatrossdoc "Our songs were the only thing we had," says an old woman when a television reporter asks her how one can preserve one’s own language and culture in a foreign country. In 1962, the Nekrasov Cossacks returned to the country of their ancestors as acclaimed new Soviet citizens, after more than 150 years of enforced exile in Turkey. They brought their faith and their religious practice which stems back to the times of Catherine II, and their traditions. That had given them something to hold on to, say the old woman gathered for evening gossip and songs under the wide canopy of a tree. Traditions like the enforced marriage which brought Elena and Ivan together four decades ago and to which they adhered without love—as custom demands. Everything is fate, the women under the tree say, even the fact that Soviet powers took their faith away from their children. And who’s to become priest now? The images of this little story about the sense or nonsense of true faith and resignation to one’s fate shine as if dipped in autumnal gold, which is well suited to the old women and their songs, carried over the scraggly vineyards by the wind. Thin and fragile. USED
Screening Times: Victory Firehouse Wednesday, 9:00 pm / Saturday, 5:00 pm
About the Directors: (bios coming soon...)
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2010 Festival: June 15-19
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