"I was fifteen the first time I came to this Siberian village. Strangely, it was also the first time I ever thought of making films. That was sixteen years ago. Everything I had felt in this village I thought could only be expressed through the image, so as soon as I could lay my hands on a camera and some stock I returned to try to film it. I filmed a landscape I'd found moving. Nothing. I filmed it a hundred times. And then I understood that the emotion I felt could only be put across through working with light, through mise en scène... Little by little, the image came within my grasp. I had tamed it. I learnt that the camera has no feelings, that everything had to be rectified, redone. I try to make things breathe. If one day I succeed, I will stop."
Sharunas Bartas, interview by Elisabeth Lebovici - Libération)