Promoting and Spreading Sakha Ethnocultural Identity through the Mediation of the Russian Language: The Phenomenon of Yakut Cinema

The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is nowadays one of the main centres of cinematographic production in the Russian Federation. Films are often low-budget and boast a wide spectrum of genres. They are mostly shot in the Sakha language and draw on local history, heroic epic, cosmogony, heritage, costumes, and spiritual values. In the present work the phenomenon of Yakut cinema is investigated as a means to promote and consolidate the ethnocultural Sakha identity in the Republic. To explore this issue, I briefly describe the sociolinguistic context, featuring the Sakha Republic. Further, I provide an overview of Yakut cinema, examining the process of its rapid development, and identifying its main themes and characteristics. Then, I discuss the resonance of Yakut films, which goes beyond the local context. A dozen of Yakut movies have screened at international film festivals, reaching out to the global audience by means of indirect translation, i.e., from Sakha to English, via the Russian language. As a result, the Russian language plays a pivotal role in the circulation of Sakha cinema, and hence, Sakha identity on the world stage.