The mysterious Arctic: details of the filming of the “Northern Sea Route” series have become known

The documentary series started airing on the OTR channel. For several months, a fairly large film crew moved around northern cities and settlements isolated from the mainland, studied old and new icebreakers, went down into mines where various minerals are mined, and, in general, experienced the Arctic way of life.

The Northern Sea Route was first passed from Arkhangelsk to the Bering Strait in 1932. Already in the post-war period, nuclear icebreakers made it possible to use this route for transport. Global warming and melting Arctic ice could turn the Northern Sea Route into a very promising destination for the movement of goods in global trade.

Many film crews have studied the Far North, but perhaps for the first time it was possible to fit such a large trip into the framework of one project. “In a conversation with the author of the documentary series “Northern Sea Route” Yulia Ermilova, “MK” discussed the northern way of life, the influence of the Arctic on age and the phenomenon of northern happiness.

“We have produced twenty documentaries, and they cover everything that can be told about the Northern Sea Route,” says Yulia. — History, modernity, future, the movement of scientific thought, the creation of the latest nuclear icebreakers, the development of northern cities, mining, and so on. And there will also be small, thirteen-minute films under the general title “People of the Arctic.” During filming, we met a lot of very special people. They are different, and we tried to reveal the characters of ship captains, geologists, polar explorers, meteorologists, that is, those who mastered the Arctic and made it ours.

— Before you start filming such a large-scale project, you probably need an impressive period of desk work. How long did it take from the idea to the first expedition?

“We started working on the project in November last year, filming started in April, and editing is now being completed. As an author, I can say that I have read more than fifty books on this topic in an effort to simply understand what the Arctic is. Sitting in Moscow and having experience of business trips, of course, you somehow imagine this. But when you get to the area, you realize that your ideas are fantasies. But in reality everything is different.

— What surprised you most?

– First of all, people. Icebreakers say that the densest ice is multi-year ice. It thaws and freezes many times, all the salt leaves it, it constantly suffers compression and ultimately becomes a straight monolith, which is difficult to take even with a modern icebreaker. People in the Arctic are also constantly tested by the weather and working conditions, and in a sense they become like ice – strong and reliable. No one whines there, and the people are very responsive, always ready to help. And they love the Arctic very much. With its cold, almost graphic landscape, lack of trees.

— The Northern Sea Route is a fairly long route. Where did you get to during filming?

— We traveled through all the main cities and towns of the Northern Sea Route: Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Dudinka, Norilsk, Pevek. They filmed in the Chukotka tundra and on Franz Josef Land, in general, everywhere they could get. We were allowed on all the ice drifts that we wanted to see, from the oldest ones to those that had just left the factory slipways. We talked to polar explorers working on the newest floating station “North Pole-41”. It used to be like this: Papanin and his team landed on an ice floe and went on a drifting expedition to study the Arctic Ocean. Drifted until the ice floe broke. Then our country began to constantly equip drifting expeditions. However, due to global warming, which is strongly felt in the Arctic, the ice is becoming thinner and breaking up quickly. As a result, Arctic drifting expeditions were interrupted for almost ten years. and only now the newest ice-resistant platform, the invention of our country, has gone there. Now you can live not on an ice floe in a tent, but in much more comfortable conditions. What is interesting about the Arctic and what we tried to show in our films: our country has historically been in the first positions in it. For Russia, the Arctic is a testing ground for new inventions and a place for exploits. the world’s first drifting station, the world’s first nuclear icebreaker, the first surface conquest of the pole…

— In the mass consciousness, comfort and the North are very far from each other. And it’s not just about the climate, but also about numerous restrictions, including food. Did you feel it?

— We got to Pevek, the northernmost Russian city, where four thousand people live, one might say, on time. The first northern delivery ship has just arrived there. Much navigation there is possible only in the summer, so almost everything has to be ordered a year in advance. When the arriving ships had not yet unloaded, the stores had half-empty shelves. That is, not just a modest assortment, but almost nothing. After unloading, much of what was available on the mainland appeared, but at different prices. Before the ship arrived, a dozen eggs cost six hundred and fifty rubles. After delivery, they were offered at two hundred and thirty. And everything like that. We tried to study how people live in such isolation and understand why they are happy.

– I can’t wait to find out why?

– All the difficulties that seemed simply terrible to us – the cold, the polar night, the difficulties of planning construction or repairs, the difficult journey to the mainland – are compensated by the huge advantage of living in the North. And the advantage is the absence of fuss. Nothing distracts people there from the very essence of life, and they really appreciate it.

— I suspect that many of those with whom you spoke are constantly busy, and not with the simplest work. Such people are not very happy with visitors with cameras and endless questions…

— It’s very interesting, but almost everywhere I received job offers. On the icebreaker I could remain an orderly and serve lunch to the crew. My qualifications are quite enough for this, and there was just a vacancy. When we lived with reindeer herders in the tundra, they offered me to stay as a cook; they needed her then. But seriously, the visit of “dummies” with cameras always creates unnecessary fuss. Of course, we prepared, we remembered that we should not say “swims” but “walks.” True, it turned out that icebreakers have a different terminology. They do not walk, but run, because the icebreaker moves at the average speed of a runner. Sometimes I felt a bit ashamed for asking questions that might seem stupid. But everyone turned out to be patient and friendly. They tried to explain the subtleties to us and treated our work with great respect. I haven’t seen such a sincere movement towards me for a long time. Sometimes I think that maybe I really should have stayed.

— They say that, despite the cold and vitamin deficiency, people in the North rarely get sick. This is true?

– Is it true. None of us got sick, although the conditions were difficult. Icebreakers rarely walk on deck, and we, naturally, need to film everywhere. Sometimes you could just lie down in the wind; fortunately, the right clothes somehow helped out. I noticed another interesting detail. Everywhere, both in actively living cities and in places cut off from the mainland, people look much younger than us. There are no beauty salons in our understanding, there is no habit of taking care of oneself, as in Moscow, but people look very young. Maybe it’s the cold and it makes sense for us to fly there sometimes for rejuvenation purposes.

— Nowadays, thanks to the Internet and modern media technologies, people have more common habits. But the northern way of life is conducive to some old-fashionedness in the best sense…

– This manifests itself in a variety of things. There, for example, the institute of mentoring is very developed. Experienced people tend to take young people under their wing and teach them. We have almost lost this; it is as if a young specialist is thrown into the water, and he himself must swim up. And I haven’t seen such sincere love for my land for a long time. I used to think that I could live anywhere, but not where it was very cold. Now I think differently. The Arctic is very interesting. It is different, even the ice is special everywhere. There are almost no smells and there are not many sounds, but thanks to such silence you seem to dissolve in these endless landscapes. You begin to appreciate every ray of sun, every sprout and understand the whole thrill of the polar day. Of course, the Arctic is harsh. You will find yourself alone on an ice floe, you will freeze within an hour, and a polar bear will eat you like ice cream. But she is not aggressive and very beautiful. I have never seen such sunsets and such colors in the sky anywhere.