Songs from the Tundra

"Hmm, tasty. What is it?" a little boy wonders. "Brains," replies his friend, who has just given him some brains from a reindeer that has been dead less than an hour. The Even people live close to nature, on the steppes of Kamchatka in eastern Russia. The people here look Asian, and in many respects time has long stood still. But even people who live far from the hustle and bustle of Western civilization need culture, and the shepherds and hunters of Kamchatka play with dog-eared playing cards and sing their own folk songs. The younger generation plays computer games, while their fathers drive around on old tanks that serve as tractors. shows how modern life is gradually reaching this isolated people of the steppes, and how this is being greeted with the discreet wisdom inherent in the people of this remote part of the world. The film combines footage of unspoiled nature with the traditional songs of the Even people: "For us, the most alluring palace dome/Will never replace our freedom/Our carpet is a flowering meadow/Our walls are the great pines/Our roof is the great blue sky."