BORDERLANDS

Borderlands is a collaborative short video film project highlighting the problems caused by global warming in Norway and Russia’s Arctic region.

Produced by Victor Frankowski and directed by Simon Lane, the video film was commissioned by Random Acts for Channel 4.

Mother Nature gives a chilling message to the world’s inhabitants in a poem set in the Tundra and Arctic region of the northern hemisphere.

The film traverses the European Arctic, switching between the Norwegian and Russian border towns of Kirkenes (Norway) and Nikel (Russia). 

The two towns are separated by 25 miles of vast, white sparseness and offer very different perspectives on life in the Arctic, which due to global warming, share the same rapidly changing landscape.

In the ice-cold sea and through the bleak Soviet-era apartments, we explore the relationship between urbanity, industry, nature and the people that live there.

The film shows the vast difference between the two Arctic settlements, their architecture, culture, and identity whilst portraying the normality of life on the frontier often forgotten and ignored by the media.

The film is narrated by Adjoa Andoh with the monologue written by Laura Kirwan-Ashman.

CREDITS

Director Simon Lane

Producer Victor Frankowski

DOP Jake Gabbay

Composer Bankey Ojo

Score Mixer Ty S, Anderson

Audio record Arrival Studios

Film Processing Kodak London

Narrator Adjoa Andoh

Poet Laura Kirwan-Ashman

Colourist Dan Moran @ Creep Post

Cast

Alexandr Sezemov

Vadim Neganov

Evgenia Bektasova