Ága

Elderly Yakut couple Nanook and Sedna follow the same traditional lifestyles as their ancestors, in the massive icy expanse somewhere far, far north. Ága portrays their fascinating, ritualistic tasks in long, beautiful and intricate sequences. This is as far as you can get from civilisation – but even here, global warming can be perceived on the horizon: Winters are shorter, the animals are few; and those animals that still linger in the area all suffer from a mysterious lethal illness. When Sedna too falls ill, the ageing couple realise that time is running out. Nanook decides to go on a long journey, in order to find their long lost daughter Ága.

As an ode to that almost 100 year old film history monolith with which Ága’s main character shares a name – Robert J. Flaherty’s Nanook of the North – Mikael Lazarov has created a heartfelt, melancholy and alluring portrait of a culture from ages past, on the edge of extinction. The audience reach their resting heart rate as Nanook and Sedna’s everyday life is slowly portrayed, surrounded by a sublime landscape. The film is full of beautiful vistas to which music is added by talented Bulgarian composer Penka Kouneva, making this a highly sensory experience. Ága is an audiovisual poem about where we once were and where we’re heading; ancient nature versus rapid climate changes, and at the core, the meaning of family values.