Should we just show it or fight for its preservation as well?

When Joanna? the founder of the Waga Brothers Festival of Nature Films, invited me to accompany her during her trip to Khanty-Mansiysk for the Siberian festival, my heart was split. At the same time, the European Commissioner for Environment himself was scheduled to come to us - to the Biebrza River region, and I was supposed to take part in this visit. I couldn't imagine anybody more important paying us a visit! Nobody else could help me more to do something for nature! Not feeling brave enough to refuse Joanna and, on the other hand, believing in miracles, I was waiting for the confirmation of the Commissioner's visit. Five days before the departure for Russia, when it all seemed to be doomed, the Commissioner's visit was rescheduled! I was really lucky and I managed to get a visa at the very last moment.

With full bagpacks and passports in our hands, we appear at the airport. Joanna is refused to board the plane! Her "visa" is not a visa but an invitation - it does not entitle her to enter Russia! The victim of misfortune and Góral (i.e. my husband - Krzysztof Górski) stay at Okęcie Airport and rebook the ticket for the following day so that Joanna has time to charm the Consul and get a real visit. I'm going on my own! Góral is terrified. I don't know the person at whom I'm supposed to stay in Moscow. I don't speak Russian. I don't know Moscow and I don't know where this Khanty-Mansiysk is. I don't know what Joanna would like me say about our festival. Will she manage to join me?

I spend the next 2 days walking along the Old Arbat, the Red Square, lighting perfumed wax candles in front of icons in Orthodox churches and laughing up my sleeve. What am I doing here? I feel good in Moscow. Gala is the first Angel I meet. She picks me up at the airport. She gives me shelter in her comfortable flat near the centre of Moscow, she tells me where to go, which underground station is the most beautiful. She tells me that her Alley is not an alley anymore and there used to be wooden huts here. Now she can see a 4-lane highway out of her window. And? It appears that I still remember a little Russian from high school! We have nice chats.

I spend the flight from Moscow over the Irtysh River with my nose glued to the window. Woods, woods, marshes, marshes, woods, a road and a little town and then again woods, marshes... Below me - one lung of our Planet. The other one is on the other side of the globe. None of them is safe. Although we have here the breathtaking wide open spaces, millions of litres of oil and natural gas are pumped out from the underground and sent by pipelines all over the Empire. As it will soon appear, it is for the money of oil tycoons that such towns like Khanty-Mansiysk are built and the festivals like the one I'm going to attend are organized. My travel companion from the plane - Oleg - tells me how hard it was to survive in Moscow during the last summer when peatbogs and woods around it were burning down. "So, what's your idea for dealing with global climate changes?" - I ask. "We need to change the air-conditioning for a new one because the old one can't cope any more" - Oleg laughs.

We land at 2 a.m. It's quite .... bright. White nights! We have more Angels waiting for us. Tomorrow, we will learn that they are our true Guardians.

The Festival starts with fantastic films from Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, the Sayan Mountains. It's not that these films are beautiful, but they are rather terrifying. Mass poaching for trout in Sakhalinese rivers and futile efforts of their protectors. It is similar with the saiga, which is killed by poachers at Kazakhstan steppes, and patrols chasing bandits in extreme conditions. A lake in Iran - a paradise-like landscape of Ramsar sanctuary. Not for long, unfortunately with the contamination of the lake caused by the city outskirts, the invasion of foreign species threatening the lake's ecosystem and, finally, the construction of a horrible road. "Ramsar Sanctuary?" - I ask the film's authors - "How come that such destruction is allowed there?" They lower their heads: "Nobody gives a damn about it in our country". I am appalled and I'm not even trying to hide it.

There are also other films - about ugly ducklings or crows. Also nice.

I don't feel well during a trip where one of the attractions is feeding the bear called Stefan with condensed, sweet milk in cans. Stefan is, of course, in a cage. Too small for the King of Taiga. I don't come close. Luckily, what makes up for this bad impression is the unforgettable encounter with a Khant or Mansi woman (I guess nobody can tell the difference between them) and her songs about protective spirits of trees and animals. Then, we have a picnic on a cliff overlooking the vast floodplain of the Ob River. Our Biebrza River is really tiny in comparison.

They don't have to worry here about forests or water. They have plenty of that. What is a challenge is to survive in severe nature. In winter, the temperature falls below -40 C. In the shops, you can buy felt boots in all colours of the rainbow. Each lady can find a colour to match her handbag. There are no better boots for frosty days. The role of city parks is fulfilled by the forest forcing its way into residential districts. - "We would go crazy during long months of winter if we had to look just at the white snow, which covers everything. A little bit of green and colourful buildings save us from depression" - explains one of our angels. It is true that buildings are in all kinds of colours and, what's more, the more important ones are colourfully illuminated after dark, which in winter means all day long. Not only people learned how to live here. The potato, for instance, - the Khant-Mansiysk kind - can grow during the short summer and then survive very well the long Siberian winter.

Indeed, they don't have to worry about the woods, water or fish for themselves. However, from the perspective of a European it looks a little bit different. Over there, in the far east, I felt as poor in nature as the Dutch or the British. It seems to me that the inhabitants of Siberia don't realize how rich they are! How generously they have been treated by Mother Nature. I hope they will take good care of what they have received. And, for us, the poor from developed Europe, I hope our little national parks will be enough to make us happy. If not, we will all have to share the access to the Lungs of the Earth.

Joanna wants to show nature films. I feel that they have too few education elements, they don't reach the ecological consciense of the viewers, they don't appeal enough for saving the nature. Films about threats to nature and about its protection are not nice. They are terrifying or at least depressing. But they move people's feelings. They open our eyes to the problems around us. They make us want to do things. And it's good if they suggest what can be done. First we should save and then preserve. So that we have something to show. Something to watch. And something to breathe.

That's why I would like our Biebrza and Narew festival to be complemented with this preservation element. Will we make it? We will see it during our next film meeting at the Atlantic-Siberian flyway. We will start from the programs Joanna has brought from Khant-Mansiysk..

I hope that our Siberian Angels will be able to take part in this (inspired by our visit in their paradise on Earth) premiere film session or even short TV news about environmental protection "To Save and Preserve".

Małgorzata Górska




Joanna Wierzbicka-Rusiecka (wersja polska / polish version) >>
Joanna Wierzbicka-Rusiecka (wersja angielska / english version) >>

Małgorzata Górska (wersja polska / polish version) >>