The Land of Love

Original title Armastuse maa

The Land of Love is a documentary about reindeer, oil, politics and poetry. It tells the story of Yuri Vella, a Forest Nenets reindeer herder and poet who lives in the taiga of Western Siberia, trying to prove one person can stand against the great power destroying the environment of the natives.
To Vella, the land of love is a piece of the forest tundra where each autumn his reindeer mate. It’s also the favourite hunting grounds for employees of Lukoil, a corporation extracting oil in the region. For many years, Yuri has been trying to drive out the Lukoil people from the land where the noise of cars and rifle shots and the ruckus caused by the boozing oil workers disturbs the mating of the reindeer. Yuri employs unusual resistance methods to chase the oil workers away, including filming the intruders and writing poems on the subject.

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Author/s Liivo Niglas

Liivo Niglas is a research fellow at the department of Ethnology at the University of Tartu, Estonia. He runs an independent production company, Mp Doc, focused on anthropological documentaries. He has made films in Siberia, Africa, Central Asia and North America.

Research Liivo Niglas
Photography Liivo Niglas
Sound Liivo Niglas, Mart Kessel-Otsa
Editing Liivo Niglas, Kaie-Ene Rääk