Innokenty Sivtsev

"Illegal" is an action-packed drama about a young migrant from Central Asia who comes to Yakutia to solve his problem.

A young family with a baby is visiting elderly parents living in a remote northern village. Suddenly, their child becomes sick with dysentery. There is no necessary medicine in the village, the telephone line was cut off, and the roads were washed out due to the spring flood. The young father Vanya decides to get to the regional center on his own in order to call a Sunrise to the village. But the road ahead is long and dangerous.

Like a lone cowboy, Sergei passionately devotes his life to traditional horse breeding in the impenetrable Arctic Sakha; permafrost and the absence of roads, electricity and channels of communication mean that there is nobody else to rely on but oneself. Sergei is sensitive and introspective; he truly cares about his family, community and treats nature with the utmost respect. He loves the independence and freedom this life brings, despite the immense sacrifices that it necessitates, such as total isolation and being a stranger to his own children. Spectacular camerawork characterizes the Sakha horses in all their magnificence, and juxtaposes the post-soviet towns and the boundless taiga landscapes, where the cold bites through the screen.

Like a lone cowboy, Sergei passionately devotes his life to traditional horse breeding in the impenetrable Arctic Sakha; permafrost and the absence of roads, electricity and channels of communication mean that there is nobody else to rely on but oneself. Sergei is sensitive and introspective; he truly cares about his family, community and treats nature with the utmost respect. He loves the independence and freedom this life brings, despite the immense sacrifices that it necessitates, such as total isolation and being a stranger to his own children. Spectacular camerawork characterizes the Sakha horses in all their magnificence, and juxtaposes the post-soviet towns and the boundless taiga landscapes, where the cold bites through the screen.

Having quarreled with his father Altan goes to work in the North. He will have to spend a month alone on a deserted island. But soon a neighbor appears. He is old Baibal who has come to the island to spend the last days of his life there. He asks Altan to bury him next to his wife. But the guy finds out that long ago the old man’s daughter went missing. He talks the old man into publishing an entertainment blog to find his daughter and put of the man’s death. Every day Altan does his best to stimulate the old man to live another beautiful day.

After a car accident, the parents died in the family. The younger brother miraculously survived and is now confined to a wheelchair. The elder feels guilty, but to no avail. He does not want to put up with the fact that the younger brother will remain disabled. He decides to help him in an unusual way. The elder brother steals the car from his grandfather, and leaves with his brother to the river.

A young girl has newly arrived in Moscow, she has a baby, and is trying to figure out her life. She is in need of money and to make ends meet, she is willing to do any job.

Yakutia, the 1930s. Old Mikipper and his wife Oppuos live their days in thick taiga. Cows, hunting, fishing make up the simple everyday life of the old people. Once early in the winter an eagle flies into their garden. The old people dare no drive it away because eagles are sacred. All through the winter they feed the bird so that it does no attack their cattle. Gradually they grow accustomed to each other. On a cold Christmas day the eagle makes its way into the house and occupies the honorary place in the corner on the shelf next to the icons. From then on the people and the bird start their life together in one house.

For an ordinary Yakut guy Kolya Anufriev life seems to be simple and clear until he meets Svetka. Because of her he wants to become better and change his life, but as a result, everything changes...

Every year the Sakha people celebrate the festival of summer - Ysekh. This ethnic holiday celebrates the Aiyy deities and the revival of nature; it embraces ritual prayers, plenty of rich food and koumiss, dancing, folk games, and horse races. Jehegey Aiyy is a serene deity worshiped by people. Jehegey gave horses to humans, and now is the heavenly patron of horse raising. In the majority of recorded songs and legends Jehegey is a male creature, but in some of them it has feminine gender and is called sylgy aiyhyta. According to legends it sometimes appears to people as a loudly neighing light-colored stallion.

On a frozen dark night in remote Siberia, a group of strangers travel home together in a van. When the driver refuses to stop for an elder, a darkening shadow looms over what could possibly be the most tragic night of their lives.