A Toxic, Closed-Off City on the Edge of the World
Every day for two years, filmmaker Victoria Fiore tried to gain access to a toxic, closed city in Siberia with no ground transportation connections to the rest of the world. Located nearly 250 miles north of the polar circle, Norilsk is home to 177,000 people, many of whom are employed by the worlds largest mining and metallurgy complex, Norilsk Nickel.
It spews more than two million tons of gas into the atmosphere per year. As a result, life expectancy in Norilsk is ten years shorter than Russias average (and twenty years shorter than that of the U.S.).
After a dozen failed attempts at a visa and multiple trips to Moscow to meet with mining representativeswho were, in turn, holding meetings with the FSB, the successor to the KGBFiore was finally granted entry into the industrial wasteland.
She was stunned to find that the residents of Norilsk were proud to call it home. Her short documentary, My Deadly Beautiful City, captures what Fiore describes as the hypnotic mysticism of a city on edge of the world.
It spews more than two million tons of gas into the atmosphere per year. As a result, life expectancy in Norilsk is ten years shorter than Russias average (and twenty years shorter than that of the U.S.).
After a dozen failed attempts at a visa and multiple trips to Moscow to meet with mining representativeswho were, in turn, holding meetings with the FSB, the successor to the KGBFiore was finally granted entry into the industrial wasteland.
She was stunned to find that the residents of Norilsk were proud to call it home. Her short documentary, My Deadly Beautiful City, captures what Fiore describes as the hypnotic mysticism of a city on edge of the world.
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