Pas loin du goulag - Routes de l'impossible

Disappear! In the middle of Russia, in the spring, the fear turns Lake Baikal into a deadly trap. And the ice mist that emanates from it announces a tough journey for those who live there, in the village of Rolotnaya. They go to feed the reindeer herders, the Evenks, just like them, isolated on the high Siberian plateaus. Dimitri is the only driver in the region to agree to make this difficult journey. This year, he must deliver 600 kilos of food quickly. Winter has been so rough that no one has been able to go and feed the shepherds for six months. There is flour, sugar and rice. Everything they need to last until summer. If we don't leave right away, the road will become impractical. In a few days, the snow melt will turn the track into swamp. To rally the camp of the Evenk shepherds, they have only 65 kilometers to cover. 65 small kilometers that can take them weeks. They will face the Siberian white hell. As soon as they leave the village, Dimitri is confronted with his first ambush. We are arriving at the river Gassan. It's going to be hard. The weather is nice and the ice has become extremely fragile. I don't know how we're going to get through. Here, the ice is suspended. Between the ice and the water, there is an empty space. The truck can fall. The water has melted the ice underneath. Here, in winter, there was a big ice crust that began to melt. It seems solid. Here, the truck will be able to pass. We're going to go this way. Yeah, no, no, rather that way. There's a hole there. You have to go all the way. Dimitri's anxiety is stuck in the middle of the ice bridge. Fragilized by the melting of the snow, these 80 centimeters of thickness would not last very long, the 10 tons of the truck. If the passage of the river was carried out without trouble, it may be thanks to this TV. Because in Siberia, it is better for a god sitting in front of the small screen than a god busy tearing up the elements against the travelers. The place looks like a dump. Yet it is one of the most sacred places in the region. All these incongruous objects are in fact offerings intended for the god Burhan. It's the fountain of youth. According to legend, the god Burhan would have made this source insensitive to ice so that each traveler could disintegrate there. We stop here to pray, to make ablutions, and above all to make a wish by throwing a coin. The water is drinkable, it is never covered with ice. It is a blessed place. After the blessing of men, that of the machine. To get rid of the bad spirits, Yura, the co-pilot, infuses the truck with sacred incense. It is so that everything goes well, so that we can get where we have to go. Thanks to this prayer, we will avoid breakage, and above all, the holes. This place of worship also serves as a mailbox for a very special courier. The hunters of the region drop the beasts too heavy to carry on their shoulders here. Dimitri and his men are in charge of bringing them back to the village. Today, it's a bear skin. Oh, it's heavy, shit. It's a hell of a beast. Here are the bullet marks. Here, there, bullets. What is delicious are the legs. When we get home, we will cut them, we will cook them. It's delicious. The bear was killed several days ago. Its meat was preserved as their ancestors did. The meat is over there. The hunters put the meat under the ice so that it does not rot. It's like a fridge. Very few people eat bears in the region. The beast mostly feeds on animal corpses that contaminate its parasite flesh. Some are deadly to humans. The Evenks, they, eat them. They seem to be immune. From now on, the road will become infernal. We are attacking the red mountain. There are huge fences. What the ****. Fucking hell. Fuck. It's very deep. We're going to have to go all the way there. From the start, Dimitri does not exceed an average of three kilometers per hour. He is afraid of being forced to sleep in his cabin if he fails to reach the shelter before nightfall. In the spring, the temperatures still flurry with minus 20 degrees. Lower in the valley, Lake Baikal. This frozen lake, as large as Belgium, feeds most of the inhabitants of the region on its fish. In winter, the ice reaches a thickness of more than one meter. Everyone can then cross it or go fishing by car. But in spring, when the good days come, the ice becomes thinner and the lake turns into a deadly trap. Like that day. A local television crew filmed the trailer of a car stuck a few hours earlier. When suddenly, a second car arrives. Despite the alarm bells, its driver rushes straight towards this fault. Of the two passengers, only one will survive the cold. Every year, the lake has more than a dozen deaths. Anatoly lost his best friend in the same circumstances. It was three years ago. He couldn't get out of the car. She fell into the water too quickly, in one fell swoop. We're not kidding about Lake Baikal. It's dangerous. Dimitri and his truck are also victims of the cold. When the snow becomes soft, the truck sinks. The man and the machine then find themselves in front of snow walls of one or two meters. The only technique to get through them is exhausting. You have to push them down. When you get stuck in the snow, you have to step back immediately. Because if you stop even for a short moment, it's over, you're stuck. Hours to tear up a few kilometers in the mountains. Dimitri can't take it anymore. If he continues to move at this speed, he will never reach the refuge before nightfall. To get around the snow wall, he has only one solution. Leave the track and use his truck like a bulldozer. The trees are a problem. They tear off the brake lines. It breaks everything under the truck. They can even drill the cabin below. It has already happened to me. Difficulties increase with the kilometers. The road wears men out little by little. Stress causes tensions between Dimitri and Yura, his co-pilot. They don't agree on the road to take. Well, we're going to have to get around here. Over there? Are you sure? Do you want to go right? Yeah, yeah. Well, listen to me now. Take this way, please. Because otherwise, you see, we're going to be blocked and we won't get through. Go right. No, no, no, left. Fucking shit. Go **** yourself. I'm telling you, it's that way. Are you listening to me or not? This time, the truck is immobilized. It is completely blocked. It rests on its axles. Hang the trolley, please, I'm going to unroll it. And pull on it to stretch it. The difficulty is to get this cable out. By hanging it on a tree, my trolley will save us. It's okay, Dimitri. The front of the truck is trapped in the mud. To get it out, you have to pull it back with the help of the trolley. At home, there is a proverb that says, move forward for the homeland. Until nightfall. At 10.30 p.m., the spell is cast on Dimitri and his men. Burhan, the god of the Evenks, does not seem to want to bring them luck. The truck is jammed again. And a tree has stuck under the chassis. I'm fed up with this shit. 11 p.m. The trolley is useless. The temperature has dropped below minus 10 degrees. The snow has hardened. The truck is trapped in the ice. What a mess. At midnight, the thermometer has fallen again. It now indicates minus 20 degrees. There is nothing to do. At the end of the day, the crew is preparing to spend the night in the truck. Except Yura. Listen, Dimitri. At least the engine is working. You can start the heating. I'll be back tomorrow with a snowmobile and men. Come on, Dimitri, rest well. Well, I'm going. To reach the refuge, Yura will walk 10 kilometers among bears and wolves. God only knows if I'll make it. Maybe I'll have to sleep outside in the forest. After 5 hours of walking, minus 20 degrees, Yura finds the rescuers. But no one wants to take the risk of going back there in the middle of the night. The men will leave tomorrow morning at dawn. The next morning, Yura and the rescuers rush to Dimitri, the truck driver in Bourbaix. Crossing the forest, alone and on foot to get help, Yura risked his life, for nothing. When he arrives, Dimitri is already out of business. This morning, the weather is fine. The snow has melted and the wheels have freed themselves from their ice chains. The village is 35 kilometers away and the road still has many challenges. That's it, it's good. We'll be able to get out. And why did Dimitri choose to go through the widest part of the river? He's going to go through with a lot of momentum. He's crazy. It's risky. There's air down there. There's a hole. I'm not sure it's going to work. His fear is confirmed. The temperature drops sharply from 10 to minus 20 degrees. Look, it's already dropped 10 centimeters. 10 centimeters. We're going to put branches under the wheels. Dimitri and his men are stuck on the slope of this mountain. Their last obstacle. It seems impassable. For the moment, the truck has barely advanced 50 meters. We still have a lot to do. Once, it took us three days to get through. Three long days. I had hit the truck. We had to pull it with the trolley. It took us three days to climb this slope. This time, it will take them five hours of hard work to climb this slope. And after two days of fighting against the elements, the village is finally in sight. We're coming. I didn't think we'd make it. We're here. I was about to give up. I didn't believe it anymore. We did well to pay tribute to the god Borhan. A dozen men live here in this farm at the end of the world. During the winter, they remain isolated, far from any civilization. It had been six months since these men had seen new faces. The flour, the rice, the sugar are stored high up, in a grain cellar, well protected from bears. This is where we work. The reindeer are half a day's walk from here. There are two shepherds to keep them. It's Alexei who has to feed the two isolated shepherds. He has lived all his life here, near Lake Baikal, in the middle of the reindeer, in the forest. I'm 53 years old. 53 years old. I have no family. I couldn't have one. Alexei regularly feeds the two shepherds who watch over the 700 reindeer the herd has. The reindeer raise their reindeers on the high Siberian plateau. In winter, like in summer, the animals find their basic food there, the lichen. After 20 km of walking, Alexei finds the two shepherds again. Did you bring us food? Yes, I have milk. Flour too? Sugar? Salt? Yes, yes. The essentials. Barely 12 m2 for two, the benches also serve as beds. We will come back home when summer is here. We will be at home. We will go to see the girls and rest, have fun. We will also go swimming in Lake Baikal. It's a wonderful place. In the night, the water is hot like the milk that just came out of the cow's penis. They still have three months to wait before the arrival of the summer team. Then, when winter comes back, they will take their place in the middle of nowhere. For them, solidarity is still a matter of life or death. This immovable cycle of nature is that of the Evenks.