Short documentary showing the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union for a motley collection of inhabitants of a marshy tract of land by the River Ob in Western Siberia. Most are former political prisoners banished to this `Gulag Archipelago' by Stalin, and their descendants. The rest of the population is made up of oil workers. These 'oil men' moved into the marshes in the sixties as pioneers to exploit the oil fields. They ensured the black gold that the Communists needed to finance their workers' paradise. The original inhabitants of Siberia still live among these people: the Khants, a tribe of reindeer nomads who have defied the climate in these marshes for centuries. Awarded a Golden Calf for Best Short Documentary.
