MIN URDUBER KYUN KHAHAN DA KIIRBET

The painted images around the kitchen table are insipid: Altan doesn't want to travel to Yakutia's far north, and has equally little desire to sit innocently at the dinner table. He much prefers to surf the net and work on his burgeoning career as a YouTuber, lived out through his Absurdgram channel. Eventually his father can't take any more, at which point he sends the youngster out into the tundra to guard a fox farm. There he can still use his smartphone, internet is provided to the Laptev Sea, located in the Russian arctic, by satellite, and on top of that, he soon encounters the recluse Baibal, who lost his family to a boat accident several years ago. New media collide with ancient myths, networked existences with personal memories and the dream of a global following with the recognition of finitude. Old Baibal is convinced that he will soon die and yet Altan shows him that every day is there to be enjoyed, learning in turn from Baibal, widely considered to be out of his mind, that you shouldn't wait to achieve your goals. Thus, they learn from one another and laugh together. And we laugh with them in this remarkably heartening film made up of music, scenery to die for, dreams and selfie videos. BW