Pegasus Research Consortium

General Category => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Irene on July 20, 2017, 09:38:00 PM

Title: "Agafia" - Film About a Hermit in the Russian Taiga
Post by: Irene on July 20, 2017, 09:38:00 PM
I've watched this very interesting video twice. It's about a woman hermit living deep in the Russian forest, or taiga, near Mongolia. Her family came to live there in the early 20th century after fleeing religious persecution in greater Russia.

She is definitely a survivalist, somewhat reminiscent of Dick Proenneke (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Proenneke) ("Alone In the Wilderness" (http://aloneinthewilderness.com/)) in Alaska, but this film is more a microcosm of reclusion and the culture of a bygone era. She speaks Russian and Old Slovenian, which is now a very rare language, and practices the faith of the "Old Believers", an archaic form of Russian Orthodoxy.

I was somewhat annoyed by the filmmaker who stirred up a disagreement between Agafia and her neighbor, which was completely unnecessary. These two people live in an extremely remote corner of the world and, as such, depend upon each other for their survival. Deliberately fomenting a disagreement between them was really low class.

What's worse is the filmmaker lies in the narration, saying their "slip" was "unwittingly" made.

(52:07 min) -

https://youtu.be/BFK3DJ7Kn6s (https://youtu.be/BFK3DJ7Kn6s)

Wiki - Agafia Lykova (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agafia_Lykova)