The film of the Yakut directors was included in the short list of “Oscar”

Evgenia and Maxim Arbugaev filmed the documentary “Exit” on the Chukchi Sea

The 25-minute documentary “Exit” by Evgenia and Maxim Arbugaev was shortlisted for the Oscars in the Short Documentary category. Great Britain and Russia participated in its production.

It is a magnificent, powerful picture of what threatens a world that may not die from wars, but from irreversible climate change and global warming. There is only one person on the screen – biologist Maxim Chakilev, who lives for several months all alone on the shores of the Chukchi Sea in a dilapidated house. When endless hordes of walruses appear, the mere sight of which is breathtaking, a courageous scientist keeps an eye on them. And they literally break into his hut, and it seems that they are about to demolish it. However, Maxim somehow finds a common language with them and sends them out of his territory. What we see on the screen leaves no doubt that what is happening in the Arctic is evidence of the dramatic future of our planet. Man is just a reed in the wind.

“Exit” has already received an award at the International Short Film Festival in Winterthur, Switzerland, which played a decisive role in its nomination for an Oscar. There are several festivals that give their laureates such an advantage. The picture also participated in the “Message to Man” in St. Petersburg, the Perm “Flahertiana”, “Golden Crow” in Chukotka, received the Lavr documentary award as the “Best Art Film”.

Maxim and Evgenia and the Arbugaevs are brother and sister. They were born and raised in Yakutia. Their father is a biologist by education, a professional traveler. As Maxim Arbugaev told MK, he took him on an expedition from the age of five and thus instilled a love for nature and people living in the north. Now Maxim and Evgenia feel in harmony with nature and being in a reindeer herd or with fishermen. Maxim had the opportunity to observe wild animals for months, and this greatly influenced him. Without this space, it is difficult for him to live, and a long stay in a city apartment becomes a real test.

.Evgenia Arbugaeva is an organizer of exhibitions and a director of mass events by education. She studied in Moscow, then at the International Center for Photography in the USA. She lived in America for five years, moved to London, having received a grant for an author’s project dedicated to the Northern Sea Route. In 2012, she started working with National Geographic, filming mammoth tusk hunters and invited her 19-year-old brother to the project, where he did everything he could, was in the wings. Since this all started.

Maxim studied at VGIK with director Sergei Miroshnichenko. His documentary “Genesis 2.0”, created with the outstanding Swiss director Christian Fry and co-produced by Russia, China, the USA, Switzerland and South Korea, was awarded for the best cinematography at the largest Sundance Film Festival in the USA in 2018. Maxim was still a student then. The picture was filmed on the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean. It began with the fact that Fry read a book by an American geneticist about the resurrection of a mammoth and saw photos by Evgenia Arbugaeva in National Geographic magazine.

Now Maxim Arbugaev is shooting his first full-length feature film “Summer Will End” together with another talented young director Vladimir Munkuev (he has already shot the film “Nuucha”). Yura Borisov and young Makar Khlebnikov play the main roles there.

.The Oscars shortlist also includes the feature-length documentary Navalny, which is of great interest to foreign audiences because it explains who Alexei Navalny is in all the details well known to Russian viewers.