Ruth Maclennan

a forest tale

THE BRITISH PREMIERE OF THE FILM BY RUTH MACLENNAN

Dates: 23 February 2023 – 1 April 2023
Open Monday–Friday 1–6pm; Saturday 10am–5pm

Preview: Wednesday, 22 February 2023, 6–8pm

Pushkin House presents the latest film by Ruth Maclennan, shot in Russia and finished one day before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Consisting of disjointed narratives, A Forest Tale portrays the complex world of the subarctic boreal forests of Russia, which serves as both a habitat and a source of life for a large and diverse community of people. They use state-of-the-art machines – and at the same time enthusiastically revive obsolete technologies that offer the potential of a sustainable alternative; look for answers in the past of their families – and consider leaving their life in the North behind; and actively participate in the lives of their communities – while having to rely on their own resilience.

Ruth Maclennan: “This film was shot over two weeks in December 2021 in remote areas of European Arctic Russia. The northern winter is a time for gathering round a fire to find comfort and delight in sharing stories and food. The unfinished stories in A Forest Tale are collectively made, words in motion, fashioned by hand, voice and long experience, tales of a place through time. Time here is elastic, playing backwards and forwards, as people and forest hold out against present threats including climate change, industrial logging and political adventurism, working to survive and flourish in the future. The trees – larch, pine, fir and birch – and forests are the matter and world of these stories and lives, incarnate in the houses, tools, artefacts, food and heat. 

While A Forest Tale was being filmed, Russia was assembling thousands of troops on the border with Ukraine, and a sense of foreboding was in the air. We spoke of our fears of what might be about to happen. But the film was finished before the invasion of Ukraine, and therefore it seems important to let the voices and places of that moment speak for themselves, and not distort them with hindsight.  Something good happened in that little corner of Russia, though the war can make it hard for people to appreciate that anymore. A film, at least for its duration, replays that elastic time again, conjuring a ‘what if’ to replace the desperate feeling of ‘if only’.”

A Forest Tale was produced in collaboration with the Arctic Art Institute and Film and Video Umbrella (funded by Arts Council England).

About Ruth Maclennan

Ruth Maclennan (b. London, 1969) is an artist and writer. Her work includes films, multi-channel moving image works, photographs, performances and writing. Her recent films examine how the climate emergency has irrevocably transformed ways of seeing and understanding landscape and place – both for inhabitants, and as representation.

Maclennan exhibits widely internationally. Since April 2020 she has contributed to the international collective, The Crown Letter. She is known for her films set in post-Soviet countries, including Call of North, Hero City and Cloudberries, filmed in Arctic Russia (London International Film Festival), Theodosia, filmed in Crimea a year before its annexation by Russia (supported by a Joanna Drew Travel Award), and Capital and Anarcadia, filmed in Kazakhstan. Exhibitions include Icebreaker Dreaming (solo, Pushkin House), Anarcadia (solo, FVU/John Hansard Gallery), Terrapolis (French School, Athens), State of Mind (London School of Economics), and The Body. The Ruin (Ian Potter Museum, Melbourne). She has a PhD from the Royal College of Art and is Institute Associate at Scott Polar Institute, University of Cambridge. Her films are distributed by LUX.

A Forest Tale
33 mins, 2022

Director
Ruth Maclennan

Creative Consultant
Ekaterina Sharova, Arctic Art Institute

Producer
Alexander Perkov

Executive Producers
Steven Bode, FVU
Jonathan Stubbs, FVU

FEATURING

Suzemye Choir, Arkhangelsk
Kenozyorochki Choir, Pocha, Kenozero
Mikhail Gerasimov and Ekaterina Vasilieva
Evgeny Shkaruba
Sergey Kulikov
Albina Mokhriakova
Sofia Skidan
Daniil Vlasov
Alyona Valkova
Ulyana Kal

Guides
Evdokia Repitskaya
Ivan

Project Manager
Katie Byford, FVU

Sound Recordist
Artyom Basov

Camera Operators
Ruth Maclennan
Alexander Perkov

Sound Design
Tom Haines

Sound Mixed at
Brain Audio

Colourists
Pat Wintersgill, Film Shed
Hannah Hunt, Film Shed

Camera Equipment
KINEMOTOR

Film and Video Umbrella
Steven Bode
Katie Byford
Susanna Chisholm
Jade Desumala
Mike Jones
Jonathan Stubbs

Special thanks to
Hotel Golubino

Thanks to all those who contributed to and participated in
the Arctic Treeline art project in December 2021, many of whom appear in the film 

Thank you to all the Arkhangelsk museum curators and directors, 
to the guides, directors and scientists of Kenozersky National Park 
and Golubino Zapovednik, to the guides in Kimzha village,
and to all at the Hotel Golubino, who contributed their time, expertise, and stories

Thanks to Galina Kalitina, Evgeny Tenetov, Tatyana Lefman, Marina Meliutina,
Marina Antipina and Elena Ovodova

Co-commissioned by 
Film and Video Umbrella and Arctic Art Institute