Almost Mongolia

Most of us are going for an excursion today, thanks to the minibus that the municipality has loaned us. The mayor, accompanied this time by his son, is still present with us. Even though we don't communicate so much with him (except the Russian-speaking people among us), he appears to be a very nice guy. Later on in the day, we got sourly disillusioned: the mayor is in fact not the mayor, but simply an employee of the municipality. Probably one of us started to call him 'mayor' because of his nice outfits, and this 'truth' was never questioned later on. A lesson for documentary making. To tell the truth, we were wondering why the mayor – even of a small city – was spending so much time with us.

Anyway, we all head to an area in the south of Sludianka on the way to Mongolia, mostly populated by Bouriat people, an ethnic minority which shares a lot with Mongols. The landscape is dramatically different from what we have seen until now. Very large, flat and fertile plains, surrounded by high snowed mountains, many cows. We now feel that we are crossing one border. More exactly, we are in between two spheres of influence, in a zone which delimits two empires, the Russian and the Chinese ones. Eventually, we find ourselves not more than 100 kilometers from the border of Mongolia.

In the middle of nowhere, we found ourselves in a thermal resort but of a very special kind. All the wooden houses have a function: one for toilets, one for massages, one for the bath. And the hot sulphured water of the 'banya' is actually spread in a pool, which appears to be aimed at the kettle and not really to human beings. Still the experience appears funny enough.
When we return in Sludianka in the night, we experience a last sauna – a real one this time with swimming in the Lake Baikal, and return to the editing of the films by night; this 4th of September has been a day-off for most of us.

BATH IN LAKE BAIKAL

Just like if we were experiencing a jet lag, the day starts at 1 pm with a brunch. We have a direct view on the lake Baikal... Not bad at all! We then experience our first 'banya' of the trip: Finnish-style sauna immediately followed by a diving naked into the lake. This is really fantastic; we just now have to be careful that the workshop remains... a workshop!

Actually, most of the teams take advantage of this stopover to start editing their material. The team of Denes is still looking for more kids in the streets of Sludianka, which just experienced a terrible earthquake (magnitude 8 on the Richter scale) the week before. Fortunately, nobody got killed and there's no sign of damage. Sludianka is a strange mixture: some typically ugly Soviet buildings, but also perpendicular streets with nice wooden houses and their painted blinds. The train station itself seems to occupy one third of the space. The presence of shooting crews is a unique attraction for the city youngsters.

The mayor

Between the long journey and the time zones we are crossing, our sense of time gets confused and we are never so sure about the actual local time. The result is that we find ourselves all awake in the middle of the night. From our stop in Irkutsk (3 am local time) to Sludianka, our destination, we organise a silent party in our wagon while everybody is sleeping. The provodnitsa and our fellow travellers are nice enough to let us go on.

We eventually arrive in the small city of Sludianka just before the sunrise, and the mayor himself – wearing a beautiful grey costume and white shoes - welcomes us. In the minibus to our accommodation place (we stay in the city's school), mister the Mayor, Alexeï, is introducing his city. It might be not the perfect time for that after 60 hours of train, but as nobody is really sleepy we are happy to learn that Sludianka comprises 20 000 inhabitants (that we favoured to the 2 millions people of Novossibirsk when we decided for the stopovers of our journey).

Fresh food

Whereas we are entering our 3rd day on train, this morning a stop has boosted the moral of the troops. For the first time of the journey, an army of 'baboushkas' has welcomed us on the platform with fresh food: from pirojkis (some kinds of pies) to pelmenis (sort of dumplings) passing by beet roots and potatoes. We are not going to open dehydrated noodles for a change, and that's why we celebrate with a breakfast served with vodka. Our Russian travel neighbours seem to appreciate our rapid integration to the Russian customs.
The general atmosphere is getting more relaxed, even the conflict between Monica and Filip has calmed down.

The constant stare

For the first time a participant is taking over this blog. Thanks to Leo for his text, and hopefully he will be followed by other soon:

“Gold teeth smile on plump friendly lady
White long bearded old man
Young boy plays cards in football top
Smart woman in sandals plays with her mobile phone
Bulgarian girl uses her video camera to capture the wagon we are travelling on to Sludianka
A Moustached father stares me down

The Russian gaze
The penetrating stare
What’s in this look
Its hard to tell?
I have seen it all the time

On the subway I had a staring contest with a pretty brunette
We share a look on the metro for what seemed a lifetime but in reality it was a few seconds
This does not happen in the west we divert our gaze
I felt connection…
I could not take further because of my lack of the language
She left a few stops before me, nothing said
What was in this experience?

Siberia rolls by the window
For days the landscape was a flat muted green
Littered with tall skinny trees
Suddenly a change
I saw a hill today, 15 hours from lake Baikal
I sleep in a wagon with 50 others my long legs stick out the bed at night
Its very hot all the windows are closed and there is a constant smell of sweaty arm pits old socks and strange food.
We eat like we are in space, ready meals
Pot noodles just add water, serve with bread and poor salami
Wash with warm beer or lemon chai
Hot water is provided at the end of each wagon
Each wagon has two toilets a guard to watch over us

What they call a provodnitsa all girls they give us bedding, tell us off when we make too much noise and keep a watchful eye for wrong doing
Our provodnitsa is a Marilyn Monroe look alike
Her long lashes and curls make a striking first viewing
but she is nothing special when you around they are always pleasant looking girls to gaze upon much prettier ones

As the landscape slowly changes and we leave Yekaterinburg
For Asia no longer in Europe
I look for the facial changes,
Cheeks become broader and eye’s wider
The orient is coming……….

In Yekaterinburg we were taken care off
Tall Russia girls stare with hungry eyes
Every girl I meet seems to be less than 20
Are the rest married?
But even these girls seem smarter and older than European girls the same age
Pretty curious eyes what are they after?
We just talk to girls
Flirting but no more there is an genuine innocence here
Or did we just meet good Christian girls?
We talk until day breaks and then longer
They don’t want to leave us

I need to sleep and must say goodbye
I feel sorry for one girl she just does not want to go, why?
Because we are attractive men from the west?
Are they hoping it will rub off on them?
Russia is more modern than we give credit for
These are new days for me celebrated in aged-old ways
Passing the time by actually trying to listen and talk to people on the train
That last this particular journey 62 hours
A constant speed of 50 m.p.h
How is it possible we can go so far at such a slow pace, one third of the world’s land mass?
Music is pumped out into each wagon
Russian pop sounds like its from the 80’s
People in the carriage sing, eat, laugh and generally make themselves at home

Sipping tea an attractive young girl with Mongolian eyes reads vogue for the latest styles
I can’t take my eyes of her we share many long looks I give her my full stare
She looks 17 but is 19
Thank God

An hour before she leaves the train we have some time I launched myself into having a real cultural exchange
Open mouth kisses next to the toilet, she does not speak English and we can only really communicate through touch smile and general groping
My urge to take it further is defused by having something meaningful
We swap email addresses and the train continues without her…
I wonder whom else I will meet

Older women make crossword puzzles with red pens and mobile phones go off at night
Carriage lights are turn off and we must sleep in the cramped conditions but its worth it
People have opened up shared food, words, vodka and kisses.

We will continue to Vladivostok but first a swim in lake Baikal...”

Tension!

Today we have another birthday on the train, but not exactly of one of the crew members: it's the association itself, NISI MASA, which celebrates its 7th anniversary. That's pretty good to have a project going on at the time of the birthday.

The second session of discussion in groups takes place again at the wagon-restaurant this morning. Whereas the team made of Iris, Natasha and Dimitris was recovering by a whole night spent collecting testimonies of dreams on the train, in the morning a somehow bigger-than-usual conflict appeared in one team. Monica and Filip don't understand each other, to the extent that Filip doesn't get what Monica wants, and as he is persuaded it isn't going to work he's reluctant to film anything more. Monice seems to have reached her limits in terms of making efforts and explaining herself, and is emotionally tired. Time of the group session is more than needed! If it has surely not solved the conflict, at least discussion hopefully helped in multiplying points of view on the situation and in sharing the problems.
It is now planned that the team of Monica (in which Eugeniy is the sound engineer) will continue making the portrait of the character met on the train before the latter leaves the train the day after, and will then work at the next stop at the structure of the film.

Structure is also central in the two other films. Iris is disappointed with the dreams she collects and is worried about the quality of the light when filming by night, so the question of making evolve the core of the film is very much at stake. In a different way the same goes for Nikita, Monika and Julien, whose topic chosen – the heritage of Lenin in Russia – could be a subject for a 30 minute, 1 hour or even 2 hour documentary. Mixing the idea of a mockumentary about a hidden treasure left by Lenin and testimonies of common people in front of Lenin's monuments could be quite challenging – not to say impossible – in ten minutes or so...

Novossibirsk, I love you

A surprise awaits us at the 30 minute long stop at Novossibirsk train station. A delegation of about 25 people welcomes us on the platform. They are young documentary film-makers like us (younger though!), who attend a workshop taking place just before the documentary film festival of the city, this year in its 11th edition. In a quite euphoric mood, we exchange flyers and business cards, promise each other we will come back another time longer, and answer interviews to local TV's.

Julien improvises with his yukulélé a song whose only lyrics are – in Russian: “Novossibirsk I love you”. For sure, if we don't come back, at least our films will.