Winter in Yakutia is not eternal, but it can be lonely there, and the cold plays an important role in this. And the immensity of its territory coupled with a small population only helps to further alienate people from each other and hamper communication.
When studying Yakut cinema, which once again conquered the film markets last year, one is struck by a shared trend in the aspect of a certain estranged detachment. People are distant from on another; sometimes they are closer to spirits or to imperceptible death than to those of their own species. The heroes are constantly trying to get through their loneliness, to get closer to their neighbours (even if they don’t want this).
Even at the very beginning of the film Black Snow, people talk about the trucker Gosha as a greedy man, who has taken a change for the worse. He delivers goods to his own store and makes drunkards of the population of his native town with doctored vodka. He also exchanges this commodity at unequal rates for meat carcasses, dozens at a time. In short, the entire range of his interests is limited to profit and material goods.
His colleagues say that Gosha has ceased to respect the road – a part of nature, and thus part of what needs to be given due consideration, because in the understanding of the peoples of Yakutia, the human being is a product of both heaven and earth, which are both to be worshiped and respected.