LIFE OF IVANNA

By Renato BORRAYO SERRANO

CAT&DOCS - as SALES All rights, World

Documentary - Completed 2021

Ivanna is a young Nenets woman and mother of five children who lives in the Russian Arctic. She decides to take her life in her own hands, emancipating from an abusive relationship and abandoning the traditional nomadic way of life in the tundra.

Festivals
& Awards

Zurich FF 2021
Winner Documentary Competition
El Gouna Film Festival 2021
Feature Documentary Competition Golden Star award
CPH:DOX 2021
Main Competition
Hot Docs 2021
World Showcase
    • Year of production
    • 2021
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • RUSSIA, FINLAND, NORWAY, ESTONIA
    • Languages
    • RUSSIAN
    • Duration
    • 77 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Renato BORRAYO SERRANO
    • Producer(s)
    • Vladislav KETKOVICH (ETHNOFUND)
    • Synopsis
    • Ivanna, a 26-year-old mother of five children, is living in the Arctic region in northwest Siberia. She lives a traditional nomadic life, driving her herd of reindeer at the tundra as her family did for centuries. But due to the environmental side effects of climate change most of her reindeers are dying and she knows that she will soon be ruined and forced to make a dramatic decision.
      Her husband, Gena, has already left the family. He moved to the city, hoping to find a job as an oil worker in the Russian oil fields but didn’t succeed and spend his time drinking and fighting.
      Ivanna is willing to give her marriage a last chance. She will give up her traditional life, leave the tundra, move to the city, and get a job at Gazprom. But time has changed, Gena became violent and alcoholic and Ivanna realizes that the civilized city life is not what she expected.
      But there is no way back, Ivanna will have to take life into her own hands and secure a future for her and her five children.
      The film follows Ivanna and her family closely for four years through her dramatic life-changes, from the harsh life at the tundra to the modern life in the Siberian city of Norilsk.