A cult mystical film of the early 1990s: the forerunner of contemporary Yakut horror.
Anatoly, played by the film’s director Anatoly Vasilyev, returns from the big city to his native village after years of absence. He feels that he is getting old and wants to settle where he grew up. He finds an old house that is being sold for a good price, as the owner is sick and has not got long to live. After staying up late with a friend, Anatoly spends the night in a half-ruined shack. In the morning, he comes to realize that he has become a shadow stuck in limbo with other sinners like himself and begins looking for a way to return.
The script by Semyon Yermolayev was inspired by stories from his childhood. He and his family grew up in agricultural saiylyk summer houses. Like many Yakut filmmakers who would come after them, the makers of Saiylyk explore the relationship of the Sakha people with death, the world of which is not entirely separate from that of the living. The film is based on one of the key ideas in the Yakut cosmology: the afterlife is a reflection of the world we live in.
The film will be screened in Yakut with Russian subtitles.
Saiylyk
Director: Anatoly Vasilyev
Russia, 1992. 64 min. 16+
