Šamaan The Shaman 1977/1997

Title: Shaman
Original title: Šamaan
Director: Lennart Meri
Screenwriter: Lennart Mer
Cinematography: Rein Maran
Genre: ethnographic, documentary
Production: Eesti Telefilm (Estonia), YLE-TV 2 (Finland)
Year: 1997 (filmed July 16, 1977)
Duration: 22 min.
Premiere: January 13, 1990 (Finland)
The material for this film was shot in one day - July 16, 1977 during the filming of the documentary "Linnutee tuuled" (Winds of the Milky Way). In a remote corner of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug on the banks of the Avam River, Lennart Meri had a chance to meet the real Nganasan shaman Demnime (1913 - 1980), who at that time was 64 years old. And not only to get acquainted, but also to capture on film the preparation and execution of the shamanic ritual of the spell - ritual.
Of course, one could not even dream of the appearance of an "acting" shaman on Soviet screens, and even more so of the ritual rite. Therefore, the film with such rare frames was stored for a long time as "scientific material". It was only in 1997 that Lennart Meri, then President of Estonia, finished work on this unique film.