At the Zlin Film Festival in Czech Republic, the award of the ECFA Documentary Jury went to the Russian/Estonian co-production HOW BIG IS THE GALAXY? by director Ksenia Elyan. The film offers an insight into the Dolgan community, one of the last indigenous communities pursuing their traditional nomadic lifestyle in the north of Siberia.
The ECFA Documentary Jury was made up of Kristine Simsone (Latvia), Volodymyr Diagilev (Ukraine) and Rowena Martinez Ulayan-Tuzcuoglu (Turkey). Their motivation explained that “the film has been a good example of documentary filmmaking – honest, natural and illuminating. The filmmaker’s camera is felt as a friendly presence, revealing the subjects’ purity and charisma in a realistic rendition of the day to day life of the vanishing indigenous Dolgan tribe. At the same time the film reminds us to the fact that childhood is beautiful no matter where you live – in a tundra or in a megalopolis.”
The Award was presented at the Zlin Film Festival’s closing gala ceremony and was collected by a film delegation walking the festival’s “red carpet”.