Cristina Picchi

After a sleepless night, a woman leaves her house determined to put an end to her torrid relationship. Some memories are not so easy to leave behind, however, and we are now left with a portrait of a soul caught between the optimism of her new opportunities whilst still held back by the nostalgia of her past.

In January 2013, twenty filmmakers gathered in Moscow before departing on a 10,000-kilometre train journey to meet Russians and understand how they view themselves. The result is a choral work that pays tribute to Aleksandr Medvedkin’s 1932 experimental odyssey across the Soviet Union aboard his ‘cinétrain’ to film the working people of the towns and countryside.

A journey through North Russia and Siberia where people have to cope with one of the world’s harshest climates, Zima portrays a reality where the boundary between life and death is so thin that it is sometimes almost nonexistent. In these remote places, civilization constantly fights and embraces nature and its timeless rules and rites. People, animals and nature become elements of a millennial existence cycle where physical and mental endurance are as important as chance and where life and death constantly meet each other.

After a sleepless night, a woman leaves her house determined to put an end to her torrid relationship. Some memories are not so easy to leave behind, however, and we are now left with a portrait of a soul caught between the optimism of her new opportunities whilst still held back by the nostalgia of her past.

After a sleepless night, a woman leaves her house determined to put an end to her torrid relationship. Some memories are not so easy to leave behind, however, and we are now left with a portrait of a soul caught between the optimism of her new opportunities whilst still held back by the nostalgia of her past.

In January 2013, twenty filmmakers gathered in Moscow before departing on a 10,000-kilometre train journey to meet Russians and understand how they view themselves. The result is a choral work that pays tribute to Aleksandr Medvedkin’s 1932 experimental odyssey across the Soviet Union aboard his ‘cinétrain’ to film the working people of the towns and countryside.

A journey through North Russia and Siberia where people have to cope with one of the world’s harshest climates, Zima portrays a reality where the boundary between life and death is so thin that it is sometimes almost nonexistent. In these remote places, civilization constantly fights and embraces nature and its timeless rules and rites. People, animals and nature become elements of a millennial existence cycle where physical and mental endurance are as important as chance and where life and death constantly meet each other.