Visions du Réel 2020 - ANERCA, Breath of Life
visions du reelANERCA, Breath of Life is a moving and impactful film that follows several indigenous cultures in the Arctic Circle. These groups lie within the borders of Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Canada, Greenland, and Alaska respectively. Co-directed by father and son, Markku Lehmuskallio and Johannes Lehmuskallio, the film depicts the strong and flourishing cultures of indigenous groups that were at many times subject to extreme adversity.
There are many instances in this film that showcase authentic indigenous culture. Traditional dances and outfits are worn and demonstrated by actual native individuals to ensure an authentic depiction of their culture. A Greenlandic woman performs a masked dance while following up with an explanation as to what each colour of the face-painted mask represents. A Russian Chukchi woman also delves into her culture by exhibiting a now forgotten practice of facial tattooing for women. These first-person accounts make way for a deeper understanding of a given tribe’s culture. Alongside these accounts, historical context is also very prevalent in this film. The narration of historical events lists dates of the first encounters between white colonizers, missionaries, and various native tribes. These specific narrations send out a clear message on the tolls that religious and cultural pressures had on the indigenous groups already inhabiting the land. The narration greatly adds to the understanding of cultural erasure. Alongside the determination of indigenous groups to connect with the ways of life inherited from their ancestors.
One especially impactful section of the film was when a Russian Nganasan woman by the name of Anna Momde describes how she made a “fatal mistake” by passing a communist party’s will onto her people. Momde worked as a secretary for the Communist Party Committee in Volochanka, where she called her tribal brothers and sisters to a new way of life. This new way of life advocated for her people to leave the tundra and settle in villages, in which communism could, “give them a better, longer, and more interesting life.” This tore the Nganasan people from the traditions they had been practicing for years. The villages could not offer her people the same benefits as the tundra once did. Now the village of Volochanka is home to people who were once hunters, reindeer herders, and fisherman. These people were coursed out of their land and put into an environment that did not work for them, but against their traditional way of life.
The use of sound and music is also a very notable characteristic about this film. Bird songs and poems are mixed in with the sounds of everyday urban life. These sounds span from everything as ordinary as construction noises to cars driving by an intersection. This technique greatly amplifies the surface level contrasts of life and how they intertwine to form a bigger picture. The film also tends to overlay the songs of one tribe with the songs of another. This helps make the connection between shared means of storytelling. While each group’s music may differ in terms of instruments or melodies, they’re still linked by a shared emphasis on deeply meaningful lyrics and themes. Through the mediums of art, music, and dance ANERCA, Breath of Life, masterfully displays the connection between Arctic tribes and their shared connection of storytelling via artistic expression.
Markku Lehmuskallio and Johannes Lehmuskallio’s, ANERCA, Breath of Life ultimately serves as a tribute to the beautiful cultures of indigenous groups in the Arctic Circle. While these tribes have faced countless years oppression and hardship, they still strive to remain rooted in their sacred tradition and values.
