The mountain lake

This film shows lake Imandra, the Goltsovy river and the Barents mountains, in the far north of Europe. These landmarks are mentioned in the ethnographic writings of Mikhail Prishvin, published over a century earlier. The footage was shot before the invasion of Ukraine, in mid summer, and was part of a project to recite Prishvin's early works to an audience in a small, local theatre.

There's no translation of the text but a recording of the recital and translation are incorporated. The first excerpt is inpired by the hunting stories of the Kola Saami. The childhood fantasy in this excerpt foreshadows 'Afrika', a short story by the dissident author Evgenii Zamiatin. John Updike also refers to Prishvin's early writings in his essay on this author's finest works.

Prishvin's reputation as a writer was established through his early agronomic studies that took him to the far north where he developed an interest in the language and expressions of people living far from the centres of the Russian empire.

The project received Arts Council England and the British Council on a condition of public exhibition abroad. The Arctic Theatre company in Murmansk staged the recital of the text and screening.

Over a number of years the project has been developed, edited and aided by film restoration software software