Piblokto

On the Arctic Ocean coast of Chukotka live a people cut off from the world. Their life revolves around hunting walruses and whales and protecting villages from bears coming from the tundra. This theme turns the film into a reflection on death. Marine animals become the primary source of food for the people, animal leftovers are used to feed arctic foxes on a fur farm, human cemeteries become targets for bears. It appears that all the inhabitants of this region are involved in the cycle of food and death. The film departs from the typical rhythmic structure of cinema and instead adopts the structure of a shamanic ritual, which is a meaning-forming event for the northern peoples.

  • Anastasia Shubina
    Director
  • Timofey Glinin
    Director
  • Anastasia Shubina
    Cinematographer
  • Timofey Glinin
    Cinematographer
  • Anastasia Shubina
    Editor
  • Timofey Glinin
    Editor
  • Timofey Glinin
    Producer
  • Gregory Bagaev
    Producer
  • Ilya Dunaev
    Sound
  • Grigory Karapetyan
    Colorist
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Genres:
    Essayistic, experimental, anthropological
  • Runtime:
    37 minutes 49 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 15, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    15,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Russian Federation
  • Language:
    English, Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Cinéma du Réel
    Paris
    France
    March 25, 2023
    World Premiere
    "Prix des détenues" AWARD
  • Sheffield DocFest
    Sheffield
    United Kingdom
    June 16, 2023
    UK premiere
    Official selection
  • Beat Film Festival
    Moscow
    Russian Federation
    June 13, 2023
    Russian premiere
    V-A-C Foundation AWARD
  • IFF "The World of Knowledge"
    Saint Petersburg
    Russian Federation
    October 7, 2023
    National competition, GRAND PRIX
  • Festival Cinemistica
    Granada
    Spain
    November 20, 2023
    Best Anthropological Film AWARD
  • Festival des Courts en hiver
    Porto-Vecchio
    France
    January 25, 2024
    Audience AWARD
  • DokuBaku IDFF
    Baku
    Azerbaijan
    September 26, 2023
    Best Short Documentary AWARD
  • AegeanDocs
    North Aegean Islands
    Greece
    October 17, 2023
    Short film competition
  • Apricot Tree International Documentary Film Festival
    Debet
    Armenia
    August 20, 2023
    Short film competition
  • Saratov Sufferings Documentary Drama Film Festival
    Saratov
    Russian Federation
    September 9, 2023
    International competition
  • CorsicaDoc IDFF
    Ajaccio
    France
    October 13, 2023
    New talents competition
  • DocuWest Documentary Film Festival
    Denver
    United States
    November 15, 2023
    American Premiere
    Official selection
  • Mostra Internacional de Cinema Documental ‘Mares da Fin do Mundo’ - Documentary Film Festival
    La Coruña
    Spain
    November 1, 2023
    International competition
  • Etnovideografica - International Ethnovideographic Festival
    Zamora
    Spain
    November 9, 2023
    International competition
  • FIFMA - Festival International du Film de Montagne d'Autrans
    Autrans
    France
    November 30, 2023
    International Competition
  • SiberiaDOC International Film Festival
    Krasnoyarsk
    Russian Federation
    December 5, 2023
    International competition
  • Tokyo Documentary Film Festival
    Tokyo
    Japan
    December 14, 2023
    Visual anthropology and Ethnographic film Competition
  • Ethnofest - Athens Ethnographic Film Festival
    Athens
    Greece
    December 3, 2023
    Official selection
  • 7th International Folklore Film Festival
    Kerala
    India
    January 7, 2024
    Official selection
  • Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival
    Chennai
    India
    February 20, 2024
    Official selection
  • Film and Folklore Festival
    Chaguanas
    Trinidad and Tobago
    March 1, 2024
    Official selection
  • Artdocfest
    Riga
    Latvia
    March 7, 2024
    Open Competition
  • International Film Festival "Fishermen of the world"
    Lorient
    France
    March 20, 2024
    International competition
  • Doc.London Documentary Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    March 27, 2024
    London premiere
    Official selection
  • 71st Martovski Film Festival
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    March 29, 2024
    Serbian premiere
    International competition
  • Ethnografilm Paris
    Paris
    France
    April 1, 2024
    Official selection
  • Ecozine Film Festival
    Zagaragoza
    Spain
    April 5, 2024
    Official selection
  • Festival International des Films Identitaires et Solidaires
    Nikki
    Benin
    April 27, 2024
    Official selection
  • 72. Trento Film Festival 2024
    Trento
    Italy
    May 1, 2024
    Italian premiere
    International competition
  • The Quebec International Ethnographic Film Festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    May 10, 2024
    Canadian premiere
    Official selection
  • IndieLisboa - International Film Festival
    Lisbon
    Portugal
    May 25, 2024
    Portuguese premiere
    Competition
  • Short documentary film festival "Bistre Reke" (Clear Rivers)
    Belgrade
    Serbia
    July 20, 2024
    Official selection
  • Images en Bibliothèques / Mois du doc
    Paris
    France
Director Biography - Anastasia Shubina, Timofey Glinin

Anastasia Shubina and Timofey Glinin are multidisciplinary artists working in various media – documentary and experimental film, video art, photography and performance. They work together from 2018. They are currently based in San Francisco, USA.

Anastasia Shubina is a visual artist from Saint Petersburg, she studied film directing at St. Petersburg School of New Cinema, photography at Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography and philosophy at Saint Petersburg State University. Her films were shown at a number of international film festivals and won awards. Her photographic projects were presented at solo and group exhibitions, won international competitions and were published in photographic magazines and online platforms. In her personal projects, Anastasia explores the themes of mythology, anthropology and historical trauma.

Timofey Glinin is a multidisciplinary artist form Saint Petersburg, he studied film directing at St. Petersburg School of New Cinema and science (biology) at Saint Petersburg State University. He is an independent filmmaker and photographer. His works were presented on a number of international film festivals and won awards, his photo projects were shown at solo and group exhibitions, and he is an author of a number of science art performances. In his personal projects, Timofey explores the themes of cultural practices, ethnography and modern science.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

The film was born as a result of our long-term interest and research into the traditions of the North, shamanism and folk collective unconscious. One of the directors of the film, Anastasia Shubina, an anthropologist and philosopher, has been studying Eastern culture and shamanism since 2016, and our last documentary “The art of falling apart” was dedicated to reindeer shamans in the North of Mongolia. Through cinema, we explore the cultural traditions of indigenous peoples who, despite being part of Russia (as they were colonized in the past by the Russian Empire and then the USSR), retain their cultural identity and their own patterns of thinking.

The main cultural event for the Chukchi and Eskimos has traditionally been a shamanic ritual, an event of symbolic death, during which the animal and human spirits tear his body apart and eat him. It is believed that this initiation gives the shaman control over the spirits, and for the people of his community, it is an entry into the cycle of life and death, where the dead and spirits are part of reality.

In our film, we used the sound of a shamanic ritual that we recorded during the expedition. It became not only the soundtrack, but we also structured our film according to the rhythm of the ritual. Its dramaturgy is based on repetitions and cycles and reflects the rhythm of life and the mythological stories of the Northern peoples. The life of the Chukchi and Eskimos is strongly connected with the cycles of nature, repeats itself day by day, and revolves around the sea hunting for big marine animals: whales and walruses.

People living in Inchoun and Uelen villages, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, are in complete isolation from the rest of the world. Food is brought to their stores by ship once a year, and sea hunting is the only way to survive. For them, hunting and killing animals is just a routine, necessary to get enough food.

The film title “Piblokto” (Arctic hysteria) is a disease that affects people in the Far North, similar in its manifestations to shamanism. A person sings in non-existent languages, repeats the same actions, and can perform aggressive, seemingly meaningless actions. (From the point of view of an external observer, this is similar to the behavior of a shaman during a trance).

However, the phenomenon of “Piblokto” is controversial. On the one hand, it reflects cultural events unique to the North and its traditions. On the other hand, the term “Piblokto” (despite the seemingly authentic sound) does not exist in the Eskimo or Chukchi language and was invented by external onlookers. Moreover, the indigenous people themselves do not always consider this condition a disease. In the film, we tried to keep a sense of this ambiguity

While filming, we spent several months in the remote villages of Chukotka, next to the Bering Strait, in the summer of 2020. For us, this film is an opportunity to touch the otherness, trying not to impose our own patterns of thinking on their lives, to allow the rhythm and atmosphere of the film to be born from the people's inner lives and their own cultural practices.