Trans-Siberian Railway

Video made by Stanislas Giroux. Three minutes of video for three weeks of travel, three countries, three cultures. He tooks a train ticket for the Trans-Siberian railway, in order to reach Beijing from Moscow, crossing Mongolia.

Seat 22 — Trans-Siberian Odyssey from Stanislas Giroux on Vimeo.

Muslims and Oil in Russia

This post is dedicated to Islam in Russia. Firstly, because I realized that not so many foreigners know that there are large Muslim regions in Russia. As well as a there are regions where most people are Buddhists or shamanists.

This town called Leninogorsk, which means literally - Lenin Hills. People call this place "oil town". It was built 60 years ago, because geologists have discovered large reserves of oil here. Oil pumps are everywhere in this region. Actually, it's a good object for meditation. These machines are continuously doing slow movements - up and down.

American Catholic Priest in the Russian Far East

There is the Roman Catholic Church in Magadan. I went there with my colleagues - two German filmmakers. It was cold and snowing. The church was not open. We knocked on the door.

Fifty years old man in a gray robe with a hood met us. The front of his robe was embroidered red cross. It was not even a cross, but rather a hybrid of two symbols - the cross and heart. He spoke to us in English with a clean American accent. Father Michael Shields originally from Alaska. He lives in Magadan for twenty years already.

Gold Rush in the Russian Far East

Gold mine named after Matrosov is located in the snowy wilderness (about 400 km from Magadan).

The Sea of Okhotsk オホーツク海

… but I got the biggest impression from the sea (as always). Magadan was built on the sea shore (the Sea of Okhotsk). It has an influence on the local climate: wet air, not so cold, and weather can change very quickly. It much colder outside of Magadan: up to - 50 C.

The Sea of Okhotsk (Russian: tr. Okhotskoye More) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It’s the first Russian settlement in the Far East. The Sea of Okhotsk covers 611,000 sq.mi. (1,583,000 km2). It is connected to the Sea of Japan on either side of Sakhalin: on the west through the Sakhalin Gulf and the Gulf of Tartary; on the south, through the La Pérouse Strait. With the exception of Hokkaidō, one of the Japanese home islands, the sea is surrounded on all sides by territory administered by the Russian Federation.

The Road of Bones

So that was basic idea at the beginning of shooting process. Flight from Moscow to this place (Magadan) took about 8 hours. There is no railway connection. Also possible to drive here by car, but it very long way and road could be really dangerous sometimes.

 

Russian Far East

I was making documentary as a co-director together with two German filmmakers from Cologne’s International Film School (ifs) in Russian Far East during November 2014.

Here a treatment that was written by Christian Zipfel (director of this film) before we go to Magadan and start shooting process: