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— Outpost | 2018
Wim Catrysse

​HD 2.39:1, Colour

Non spoken

34'10"

With a breathtaking helicopter landing, OUTPOST abruptly plunges us into an isolated community of Russian and Ukrainian miners in Barentsburg (Spitsbergen, Svalbard). In recent years, the coal industry in the region has seen a dramatic decline, but the state-owned mining company, Arktikugol Trust, remains determined to maintain its longstanding geostrategic position.

To ensure the survival of this former Soviet outpost, the miners continue their laborious tasks to be self-sufficient in their power supply. In a land of extremes—while trying to defy the natural laws of the Arctic—they routinely submit to "the machine's hunger for coal." Outpost gradually discloses a series of dark reflections regarding a faltering industrial model that seems stubbornly in denial about its final phase.

OUTPOST was shot in October 2015 and March 2016, each time over a period of two weeks, and was made possible thanks to the generous support of the residents of Barentsburg.

Credits:​

 

  • Produced by Escautville

  • Co-produced by Music Theatre Transparant

  • With the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF)

 

  • Camera, Editing and Sound design: Wim Catrysse

  • Sound recordist: Jan Van Look

 

  • Local fixers: Ivan Velichenko, Ivan Dementyev, Fyodor Gilbo, Zheka Taganay

 

  • Thanks to: Trust Arktikugol, Denis Alekseevich Shcherba, the residents of Barentsburg​​​​

Screened at:

​​

  • IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL), 2018
    Nominated for the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition

  • Beursschouwburg, Brussels (BE), 2018

  • Rencontres Internationales, Paris (FR), 2018

  • Lima Independiente, Lima (PE), 2018

  • Rencontres Internationales, HKW, Berlin (DE), 2018

  • MACRO | Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome (IT), 2018

  • Visite Film Festival 5, De Imagerie, Het Bos, Antwerp (BE), 2018

  • Atelier Arthur Rogiers, Initia, Brussels (BE), 2019

  • Differences (HISk), Gosset site, Brussels (BE) 2021

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