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

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