Maappa and The Ungovernable Female Protagonists of Sakha Cinema ... : Maappa und die unbeherrschbaren Protagonistinnen des Kinos aus Sacha ...

• Main Authors: McGinity-Peebles, Adelaide, Khokholova, Natalya
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe 2023
• Subjects: Sakha cinema, Indigenous sovereignty, Indigenous cinema, womanhood, post-Soviet Russia, decolonisation; Sakha Republic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17892/app.2023.00017.338; https://www.apparatusjournal.net/index.php/apparatus/article/view/338

abstract: The Sakha Republic, which has produced its own films for more than thirty years, has recently gained the attention of scholars of Russian and Eurasian cinemas globally (Damiens 2014, 2015; Strukov 2018; Romanova 2022; McGinity-Peebles 2022). Frequently, scholarship has highlighted the role of Sakha cinema in consolidating and promoting Sakha identities, histories, and culture against the historical context of imperial Russian and Soviet colonial oppression. However, little attention has been paid to the representation of female protagonists in Sakha cinema and their important role in Sakha identity building. This article seeks to fill this important scholarly lacuna, focusing on the figure of the ‘ungovernable’ female protagonist in Sakha cinema in four important examples: Maappa (Aleksei Romanov, 1986), Moi ubiitsa / My Killer (Kostas Marsan, 2016), Pugalo / Scarecrow (Dmitrii Davydov, 2020), and Ichchi / Spirit of Itchi (Kostas Marsan, 2020). In all four films, the female protagonists are viewed ...