Natural Gas follows two villages in northern Udmurtia over two days — filmed on the fly and carried as much by song as by speech, at times closer to a musical comedy.
In the first village, so remote it has no proper road in, the whole community gathers at one house for a resident’s hundredth birthday: eating, singing, dancing. A local legend holds that the state gives an off-road vehicle to anyone who reaches a hundred — and the villagers turn the idea over among themselves, wondering whether a road might not have been the better gift.
In a neighbouring village, a gas line is officially switched on. Officials arrive from the higher rungs of the administration for the ceremony; for the line to reach further, they are counting on a target number of households signing up and connecting. Often that is left to the residents to arrange, and pay for, themselves — and not all of them are glad of it. There is wary talk, too, of what gas can do: the pipes, the pressure, the risk of an explosion.
Directed by Nikolay Filippov. Russia, 2019. 31 min, in Russian and Udmurt. Premiered at Artdocfest 2019. More on Artdoc.media.