Icebreaker on the Yenisei near Dudinka, the city and industries of Norilsk
Pollution and dependence
A former gulag, producer of materials essential to our society (10% of the world's nickel or copper, 40% of precious palladium for the automobile industry), Norilsk is one of the northernmost cities in the world, and also one of the most polluted.
The ore processing plants spread their barely filtered toxic fumes over the city center. If our videos illustrate industrial extremes and environmental damage, the work of Franco-Russian photographer Elena Chernyshova beautifully illustrates the paradoxes of this unique place.
Aerial footage of Siberia
About ten years ago we considered shooting a film about Russia, a project that was quickly abandoned despite all the local help we could get and despite the strong desire we had to do it.
At the beginning of the project, to test the goodwill of our partners, we asked for the place that was probably the most difficult to access: Norilsk, a city closed to Russians themselves, closed to foreigners... One of the most polluted cities in the world, a former gulag, in the far north of Siberia. Also one of the coldest in the world with temperatures that can drop below -50 degrees and weeks of polar night.
We were warmly welcomed there. Shooting done with a Cineflex gyro-stabilized HD camera installed on a French-made H350 helicopter.
At the beginning of the project, to test the goodwill of our partners, we asked for the place that was probably the most difficult to access: Norilsk, a city closed to Russians themselves, closed to foreigners... One of the most polluted cities in the world, a former gulag, in the far north of Siberia. Also one of the coldest in the world with temperatures that can drop below -50 degrees and weeks of polar night.
We were warmly welcomed there. Shooting done with a Cineflex gyro-stabilized HD camera installed on a French-made H350 helicopter.