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EAST OF DEATH

By Tommaso MOTTOLA

Western - Development 2023

A young journalist falls into the hell of Sakhalin, the Russian, infamous prison of the deportees. Freed by a gang of dangerous exiles, he will dive into a life-changing experience.

- Year of production
- 2023
- Genres
- Western, Drama, Black comedy
- Countries
- NORWAY
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Director(s)
- Tommaso MOTTOLA
- Writer(s)
- Tommaso MOTTOLA
- Producer(s)
- Gørild MAUSETH (ORTO POLARE AS)
- Synopsis
- Summer of 1890. William, a young journalist, leaves London and crosses all Siberia to reach Sakhalin, the infamous island of the deportees. He plans to return from the island with a reportage that will give him glory.
  Upon arrival, a victim of his arrogance, he ends up in prison and faces the horror of the penal colony.
  Freed by a band of exiled bandits, and overwhelmed by their brutality, William will live an experience that will change his life.
  In the end, the young man will learn the value of compassion and will sacrifice his return ticket to help another friend, a writer, also lost in that Hell: Anton Chekhov.
  
  East of Death, an Arctic Western in the time of the Golden Age of Russian Literature, is set in a world never portrayed before that I’ve been lucky enough to explore in almost twenty years of journeys and studies.
  Inspired by Anton Chekhov's trip to Sakhalin, this "Eastern" is populated by exiles, writers, thieves, tigers and millions of mosquitoes.
  The film is an invitation to overcome our fears and to meet others. When leaders of the world sometimes indulge in war games, the lessons of Tolstoy and Chekhov are there to help: the poor and the outcast are the only custodians of the truth.