31st Haul (2013)

Surrounded by swamps, bugs and impassable mountain ranges, the tiny outpost town of Tigil in north-easternmost Russia is as rugged as the people who live there. Filmmaker Denis Klebleev delivers a keenly observed glimpse into their coarse—and rather scandalous—world of hard, simple living. Struggling along an unforgiving dirt path, drivers Yura and Vitalik haul supplies to waiting villagers in an aging tank made of spare parts. At the other end waits Yura’s wife Sveta, a brash, foul-mouthed woman who rules the roost and their delivery business. Their hard labour whets voracious appetites for cursing, drink, rampant sexism and literal tons of hauled food. Beautifully composed shots reveal a rough romanticism for a way of life so foreign to most, and so passionately lived by the few who take it on. 31st Haul is an original and rarely seen study of human relationships.