My Homeland Tales

My Homeland Tales is a film about the resuscitated magic of the North where the human being stands a challenge: to believe in reality of things unreal and to preserve the islets of the old world. The film is based on the documentary history of the inhabitants of Kenozero, product of an ethnological study of the mythology of the North. Vasili Popov, the protagonist of the film, his sister Nadezhda and his brother Nikolai, feel themselves lost in the contemporary, fast-changing world where the centenary traditions of their homeland vanish without a trace, and even their family home turned into a pile of stones. The film shows the oral legends of the Russian North and the traditions and the world view of people who live there. Water spirits, forest spirits, wandering icons, sorcerers live in their own world that parallels ours. The protagonist, already old, doubting the truthfulness of his life, is obliged to follow their magic paths to find his own answers.