Synopsis

On his fascinating expedition, the director Vitaly Mansky, who was born in the Ukraine and lives in Moscow, follows the Russian Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline that transports gasoline from the freezing cold of West Siberia to the Bay of Biscay. The visually stunning documentary, filmed over a period of 104 days in seven countries, portrays the people (and, once in a while, the animals) who live at, around or next to the pipeline route, and shows how everything is connected in manifold ways. The spectrum of different people not only covers reindeer breeders, orthodox priests, veterans critical of Gorbachev and Putin-loving musicians playing the tuba, but also Polish women praying to Virgin Mary, upset Romani people and Germans from Cologne celebrating carnival. Mansky illustrates them in different places and in a wide range of situations. At work, while ice fishing, at weddings and funeral ceremonies or on the run. Even though he tries to avoid direct commentaries, the captivating and keen-minded documentary almost turns into a political statement, if only because of the enormous contrast between the worlds of the people that have almost everything on the one hand, and those who have nothing on the other. The film was multiply awarded for the best documentary on several occasions, such as at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Guests

Vitaliy Manskiy

Director Pipeline