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View from the World
Miss GULAG
Director
Maria Yatskova
Producer
Irina Vodar and
Cinematographer
Grigoriy Rudakov
Editor
Peter Kinoy and
Contact
65 min
Color
Through the prism of a beauty pageant staged by female inmates of a Siberian prison camp emerges a complex narrative of the lives of the first generation of women to come of age in Post-Soviet Russia. Miss GULAG chronicles the lives of three women: Yulia, Tatiana, and Natasha. Although they endure incredible adversity in and out of prison, they manage to uphold their humanity and humour through the comforts of music, love, and outrageous fashion. For these women, undoubtedly, life is harsh under the constant surveillance of UF-91/9, but it is no less so on the outside. Today they, their families, and loved ones are sustained by hope for a better life upon release.
Maria Yatskova was born in Moscow in 1976 and immigrated to the United States with her mother and grandmother five years later. She studied journalism in France and Belgium and graduated with a B.A. in Film Studies from the New School for Social Research in New York. Maria’s engagement with Russian history began with her feature essay for the AP surrounding the controversial remains of Russia’s last Czar, which appeared in the LA Times. Her article about prison camp UF 91/9 in Siberia, titled “Crime and Beauty,” appeared in the September 2006 issue of Marie-Claire magazine, and provides part of the vision behind her directorial debut, Miss GULAG, an official selection of the Berlin Film Festival.
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