User Reviews

I came across this movie an early Sunday afternoon in 1992 or '93. It depicts life in a small local community on the northern coast of Russia/Siberia. The people in this community live more or less like Eskimos/Inuits or other Arctic native people did generations ago, in low wooden houses, people clad in fur, hardly any house with electricity, no engine/fuel-powered technology - living off what nature (i.e. the sea) offers. A boy, his father and his uncle (or possibly his grandfather) leave the community in a small kayak-like boat to hunt seals on an island off the coast, to provide the community with fur, lard and seal meat for the winter. They paddle for what seems like days, then reach the island, slaughter seal and head back. Then they are surprised by thick fog, which prevents them from paddling, since they can't make out the direction - they have no means of navigating except by the sun. The fog stays for days. Their water reserve is running out, and the uncle and father successively commit suicide by sliding off the boat into the Arctic sea, leaving the boy desperate and alone, but with some water and a chance of surviving. The boat drifts ashore beneath their home village while the boy is sleeping.

The movie caught my interest by being so different, progressing so slowly. The drama on board the kayak in the fog is told with almost no words at all, but you can't help but be amazed at the two men making the greatest sacrifice of all in order to give the boy a chance.

I wish this was available somewhere, but it seems like that will be a long shot...

An absorbing movie with a simple story based on a novel. A wise story that leaves you with an intuition about human nature and beauty of life. Direction and acting were perfect enough to forget about them.

I watched this movie a year ago but I didn't know its name or its writer by then because I caught it on one of the TV channels. I was moved with it, it was so simple and deep. A few days ago, I was reading a story of one Chingiz Aitmatov (Cengiz Aytmatov), and I suddenly realized that this was the same story with that of the movie.

Learning the writer, I was able to find the movie in IMDb. However I was upset to see that it didn't receive enough votes which means few people saw this awesome movie. I definitely recommend this movie. And those who saw it should read the novel.