Ivanna, a reindeer herder in the Russian arctic and mother of five children, is forced to emigrate to the city due to the deteriorating conditions of life in the tundra. With great intimacy and empathy, Life of Ivanna portrays her struggle to gain control over her life and future.
Strong and passionate, Ivanna is a young Nenets woman who is raising her five children alone in the harsh environment of the Arctic tundra. Living the traditional way of life for nomadic Nenets people, she herds reindeer through the vast wilderness in a small nomadic community, moving her one-room home on sleds by reindeer, and enduring extreme colds and fierce winds. Ivanna does the work traditionally done by a husband and wife pair in order for her family to survive, as Gena, father of her five children, lives in the city while struggling with alcoholism and unemployment.
But due to the environmental impacts of climate change, most of Ivanna's reindeer are dying. Given the fast deteriorating conditions of her life in the tundra and knowing she will soon be ruined, Ivanna takes her life into her own hands and decides to emigrate to the Siberian city of Norilsk. Though city life is not what she expects, there is no way back.
Both an emancipatory drama and a melancholic requiem for the lost way of traditional life in arctic conditions, Life of Ivanna depicts a woman determined to build a better life for herself and her family in the face of modernity.
"A stark, striking portrait of a tough tundra nomad. A magnetic 26-year-old mother of five compels attention and repels judgement in a rigorously realist snapshot of life in the Arctic tundra... An unadorned slice of extremely hard, extremely precarious life that is still somehow lived with a robust and unsentimental determination." — Variety
"An uncompromising of a tough woman living amidst harsh conditions... A character study and a portrait of a person who is both common and extraordinary. In its social dimension, it defied stereotypes and expectations." — CINEUROPA
"Documaker Renata Borrayo Serrano offers eye0opening glimpses into the harrowing and chaotic life of a modern Nenets woman what overturn stereotypes about Arctic life." — The Film Verdict
"Renato Borrayo Serrano gives us a fly-on-the-wall view into Ivanna's daily life, delivering an unflinching and intimate portrait of this hearty, unflappable woman and a rare peek into the unique world of an Nenets family on the northern tundra." — Karen McMullen, DOCNYC
"One of those rare films which combines an extremely charismatic lead with beautifully artistic direction... It's a forthright documentary which doesn't flinch during the more difficult moments. Life of Ivanna is a compelling portrait of a tough and determined woman." — Backseat Mafia
"Serrano has the ability to create anxiety via images of the family's everyday life" — POV
"Serrano's film follows the adage that the best way to learn about people in general is to look at one person very carefully." — Business Doc Europe
"The camera feels like an organic part of Ivanna's life, eager to catch the important snippets of her life." — Asian Movie Pulse
"Through raw and unfiltered imagery, [Serrano] employs a direct cinema approach that seems to have no impact or interaction with reality. It is precisely here that Life of Ivanna draws its poetic and staggering strength: a raw chronicle of one of the last nomadic peoples on Earth... Captivated me by its breathtaking dramatization of reality, making us privileged witnesses to a world that resists but is threatened to collapse under the influence of modern civilization." —Bruno Boëz, Producer, Critic and Programmer, tënk Canada
Indigenous Studies; Arctic Studies; Women's Studies; Maternal and Child Health; Domestic Abuse; The Arctic
Keywords
Indigenous Studies,Russian Studies,Women's Studies,Gender Studies,Nomadic Life,Arctic Tundra,Nenets,Motherhood; "Life Of Ivanna"; The Video Project; "Ivanna's Life
Zhizn Ivanny
Ivanna elu
Животът на Ивана
La vie d'Ivanna
Das Leben der Ivanna
Życie Ivanny
Zhizn Ivanny Yaptune
Жизнь Иванны Яптунэ
Ivannas liv - 5 barn på 7 kvadrat";
Distributor: The Video Project
Length: 80 minutes
Date: 2021
Genre: Expository
Language: Russian / English subtitles
Grade: Grade 11 and up
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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