Well clearly not. For one it no longer exists having closed down a few years ago. And upon seeing Lenkkeri's account one cannot even stretch the imagination enough to think it may ever have seen better days. The muddy path that leads through it tells you everything you really need to know: abandoned by man and forgotten by God. And yet somehow, amongst the desertlike landscape, something arises that intrigues and conveys just that little bit of nostlagia-tinted sadness. All in all a very moving as well as visually stunning portrait of a few nobodies stuck in the heart of nowhere.

Playground, 2007.

Valley, 2003.

"Sergey as a man who has moved to mine coal in the Arctic, in a place that has a history but no fu-
ture, since life where he grew up now has even less meaning", 2007.

"Misha as a man who signed a two-year contract with no holidays, far away from his family, because
there had been no work available at home for years, and because his daughter had recently become ill
and needed expensive medical care", 2007.

"Sergey as a man who, having promised his family not to touch the bottle during his two-year absence, drinks from a teapot to stave off the demons of depression", 2007.

Source: Télérama

Photo credits: Courtesy of Ville Lenkkeri