The documentary film «Forest: Guardian of Life» has been released in Russian cinemas – a four-year journey through the pristine forests of the Russian North, where some ecosystems have existed for at least 12,000 years.
On 15 October, Russian cinemas began screening the feature-length documentary «Forest. Keeper of Life» by Lesfilm Studio. Its protagonists are not humans, but some of the last remaining tracts of undisturbed dark coniferous forests in Eurasia, their inhabitants, and the subtle connections that allow this ancient ecosystem to continue thriving.
To capture this world, the team spent four years conducting 14 expeditions: ten dedicated to filming and four to recording natural sounds. The work took place in the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve in Komi, the Lapland Biosphere Reserve in the Murmansk region, «Denezhkin Kamen» in the Middle Urals, and the Central Forest Nature Reserve in the Tver region. These are areas where the forest has not experienced clear-cutting for centuries and where places almost untouched by human activity still exist.
The filmmakers consciously eschewed computer graphics and artificial intelligence: everything that appears on screen was filmed in the wild. To get closer to a life usually hidden from human view, they employed macro and telephoto optics, time-lapse and slow-motion photography, FPV drones, and extended observations.
The camera ascends to an owl’s nest atop a 500-year-old cedar, observes the «dance» of wood-decaying fungi and the blooming of the rare calypso orchid, showcases the Northern Lights over the taiga, and captures myxomycetes growing before our very eyes. Yet, the film’s main narrative is the forest system itself, where old and young trees, marshes, rivers, fungi, animals, and dead wood do not exist in isolation but as parts of a single mechanism.
«It was important for us to immerse the modern individual into the rhythm of the forest: to slow down their perception to better feel the profound atmosphere of untouched nature,» explains Irina Shapman, the film’s director and producer. According to her, the film aims to remind us that the forest is not just a resource but a complex ecosystem essential for human life.
This thought is particularly pertinent today: according to the project, only a portion of Russian forests are minimally disturbed, with even fewer remaining pristine. Such forests accumulate carbon, retain water, preserve soils and biodiversity – and simultaneously provide a glimpse into how a natural system can exist for millennia without human management.
«The Forest. Guardian of Life» runs for 70 minutes. Even before its wide release, the film received the Grand Prix at the «Unknown Russia» festival, the «Dawn» National Award for Best Film Project, and a number of awards from Russian documentary and science film festivals.
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