The film, structured as a string of returns before parting, explores the Karelian ritual culture of transitional states and rites of farewell.
Created during a residency in a small Finnish town shortly after the filmmakers left Russia in 2022, this work reflects on displacement, silence, and invisibility. The artists asked each other questions from ancient texts, inspired by the book "Eternal Sorrow" by Unella Konkka on Karelian lamentation traditions. Their answers remained unspoken, concealed behind the camera.
The time of mourning is the time of crossing a boundary. It is the boundary between the old time and the time of separation, between time and eternity. The path is embodied in concrete images of roads and trails, and the theme of destruction – of home, body, clothing – is indirectly linked to the image of the path. An interesting motif found in South Karelian laments is the request to leave ant trails, along which the deceased might come into the light and visit their loved ones. On the level of abstract concepts, the path is a transition from one state to another; it has a beginning and an end.
The film was shot over 12 days on 16mm film, capturing 24 seconds of moving images and 360 photographs of the landscape each day. In the end, it consists of 288 seconds of film and about 4,320 photographs.