Siberia And Him

One of the world's last great wildernesses, Siberia is a place where there are fewer than four people per square mile, where mile upon mile of open country is completely bereft of settlement. It's a landscape where nature makes the rules. As such, it's the only place that this film's central protagonists can really be themselves, spending their days hiking together or hunting for food and their nights in one another's arms. Yet any suggestion that this is Russia's answer to Brokeback Mountain is short-lived. Even in the absence of direct prejudice, this harsh environment allows little room for compromise or forgiveness.

Stunningly beautiful cinematography dominates a film in which the dialogue is sparse. Director Viatcheslav Kopturevskiy films bodies in a way focused not on simple aesthetic appeal but, rather, on drawing out that unique experience of beauty that one discovers only by falling in love. His style is observational, quiet, but the emotion we see is raw. Here at the edge of the world, everything is possible - and nothing.