Promoting Success / Karabash

Several dozens of soldiers in the military train are transporting an exhibition with captured weapons from Syria across Russia. Artists of military ensembles accompany this festive event. In each city, they are greeted by thousands of people who dance and take pictures with them, while children swear allegiance to their homeland. 

“Karabash” is a half-hour poetic documentary about Russian mono town Karabash, located in the Urals. This town is often called the most polluted place on Earth by mass media, and although this title is not officially confirmed, two centuries of copper mining has had a substantial influence on local ecology, transforming the woods and hills into a Mars-like landscape.

The main force in town is the copper-smelting plant, which is both the primary source of employment and environmental pollution. The documentary reviews Karabash through the eyes of Volodya, a young factory worker, who tells us what it feels like to live in a place where nothing ever changes.