Through The Land Of The Veps: 50 Years Later

Estonian National Museum 2016, 55 min Directors: Indrek Jääts, Maido Selgmäe This film is about the Veps living in the Leningrad Oblast in Russia, about their identity and language. Whether to remain a Veps despite the circumstances or to blend into the Russians? Whether to hold fast native tongue or to switch completely to Russian? Estonian ethnologists are travelling in the footprints of their former colleagues through the emptied villages. Scenes of the everyday life and interviews provide a view of the present-day life in the land of the Veps and the choices the Veps face today. Memory fragments and old photographs help to take a nostalgic look at a time when life still persisted there.