Vacations in November

The main hero of this balladic documentary is Yura, a young miner who works most of his life beneath the earth’s surface. Not having seen cherries on the trees, being exposed to severe cold and snow most of the time, Yura works hard every day, but his salary fails to arrive for months. That is why he has to make a living somewhere else. In the season of slaughtering deer on the Russian tundra, he earns a lot of meat and some money. But moreover, the slaughtering of two hundred deer in one season is a psychological outlet for him. ‘Some relax with alcohol or women, or playing cards, but for me this is a way to let the steam out,’ says Yura. He believes that the negative energy that comes out during this carnage makes him more gentle with his kids and wife. Obviously, life in this Russian place called Inta, inhabited only by industrial workers, is full of hardship. The director contrasts it with the beauty and peace of nature. The wonderful photography alternates between the free, light and bright gallop of the deer and the dark, filthy faces of miners who are followed only by a small light on their journey into the entrails of the earth.