MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS Correspondent Irina Skalina/. A few years ago, Anastasia Lomakina traveled to Russia's northernmost archipelago - Franz Josef Land - to shoot her first film about the Arctic - Voices of Tikhaya Bay - about how the Russian Arctic National Park works on the Hooker Island. Later on, she made a film about young researchers - In love with the Arctic. Anastasia noticed many young specialists were women, and quite often they were working harder than their male colleagues, proving that in the Arctic seas women are not the weaker sex.

The film characters

Anastasia is making a full-length film about existing stereotypes and what it was like for first women in high latitudes. Five stories, where every story presents a modern Arctic researcher and her predecessor of the early or mid-20th century.

- When in an Arctic expedition, every girl proves something. Most often, she proves to men she has the right to be there, she is strong, brave, and can cope with any difficulties. Even now there may be a man onboard who would say: women mean trouble on the ship, they are weak, they require assistance. I must say I can see something completely different, - Anastasia said. - I can see these women are not a burden and they do not have to prove anything to anyone. Well, I know very well how hard it is to get on an expedition, especially for the first time. What a difficult path it is to gain the opportunity to be in those latitudes and on those ships. Whenever organizers have to choose between a woman and a man, they normally would prefer a man.

Anastasia quoted one of her characters - marine geologist Maria Klenova: "I'm not a woman, I'm a scientist, I'm a professor!" Even though by year 1955, many students had studied her books, she could get into the Antarctic expedition with great difficulties. The final decision was made by Ivan Papanin. Maria Klenova was the first female scientist in the Antarctica, she was the first woman to manage a marine expedition, and she worked on the Perseus ship.

Anastasia learned about another future character while working in the archives: "I didn't even know we had such a wonderful woman!"

The first female pilot in the USSR, if not in the world, worked in Arkhangelsk. Olga Dobychina from the age of 18, since 1937, led vessels along the difficult fairway of the Northern Dvina. She was trusted even lend-lease transports - only very experienced navigators could do the job. Her teacher was Alexander Pustoshny, Georgy Sedov's companion in an attempt to reach the North Pole. By the way, further on in this story we will return to Georgy Sedov.

While there is very little information about Olga Dobychina, quite many people in Arkhangelsk can remember Ksenia Gemp.

She was first female algologist (a specialist in marine algae) in the USSR, and also a local historian, ethnographer, geographer, hydrographer, paleographer, an outstanding researcher of the Russian North. Ksenia Gemp was born in 1894, lived for 104 years and knew Georgy Sedov.

Irina Rusinova's life is almost a detective story. She was the first female winter weather meteorologist at polar stations in the 1920s. In Arkhangelsk, she worked with the water police and from there she left for the first expedition to the Malye Karmakuly (the oldest polar station) on Novaya Zemlya.

- Some say she could've been a female spy, it's very interesting. She is the daughter of a lieutenant colonel, she was associated with the Red Army in Krasnodar, worked in Odessa in 1917. She had a position as a clerk, but there is a feeling that everything is not so smooth. To come from warm Odessa to cold Arkhangelsk to serve at the police, in a city that only recently experienced an intervention. There are many such hooks that make you think - there could've been reasons for her to be there…

Ornithologist Nina Demme was the first female to lead a polar station. She laid the foundations for observing the white gull and gaga in the Arctic. Her methods have been used for 90 years.

Public casting

We were talking before a master class by actress Natalia Latukhina, a leading stage master at the regional drama theater. There are not so many materials about almost all Arctic pioneer women, maybe with the exception for Gemps: rare photographs, single documents. Therefore, reconstructions recreated their life and work in high latitudes. The film authors announced a public casting in Arkhangelsk and were surprised to see more than 100 applicants. They wanted to find girls who looked like the characters and who had similar motivation and character to show those brave women.

- We were looking for natural faces, and we also needed some inner energy, because we present women capable of great things, great achievements and dedicated to science. It is important that a modern person corresponds to such an emotional state.

Therefore, there are no professional actresses. Two girls were selected for each role, and then the crew analyzed the external similarity. Fragile Daria Degtyareva, a graduate of the Philology Department, was chosen for the role of Ksenia Gemp - she had an obvious external resemblance. But after the master class in acting, costume and makeup, quite unexpectedly for everyone, Daria was approved for the part of Irina Rusinova - she resembled her greatly in exactly the kind of hat that the polar explorer used to wear.

Daria said, she planned to be filmed on the Solovki in July - according to the script, Gemp mows algae in the sea. That, the director and producer warned her at the casting, physically was the most difficult role: she will have to stand in a boat at sea for several hours holding a three-meter drag scythe.

So, instead of the Solovki, Daria went to shooting in Teriberka, the Murmansk Region. The place was under snow in late May, spring had not come there yet. But the landscapes there were most similar to the high-latitude Arctic. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get to Novaya Zemlya or Franz Josef Land, where the characters used to work, and the places are very far away.

- I brought a bag of winter clothes to Murmansk. Plus a bunch of hot water bottles, a hat, mittens, a shoe dryer, thermal underwear, so I was packed like for the North Pole. Not to freeze during filming in Teriberka. We went there for four days, and during that time I never used a good part of my winter gear. It was funny, - Daria said. - Probably the most difficult part was to be in in the wind without outerwear. I was in the image of Rusinova, and under the image of Rusinova was thermal underwear, which could save me for a while, and then it anyway got really cold. But the main rule for an actress during filming is not to whine, so I tried to look positive.

The excessive slimness problem

Girls nowadays have turned out to be much more slender than young women were 100 years ago. At a certain point this grew into a problem, because all the clothes of those times, which were selected at theatrical costume shops, were too big for the actresses. Something was sewn additionally, and two sweaters, men's ones, had belonged to local fishermen, and they turned out a solution for the image of Nina Demme.

- I was wearing two of those sweaters to make me look more powerful, - said Maria Karachevskaya, playing the role of Demme. - We have different eye colors, thus I was wearing lenses. And her eyes are narrower than mine. I had to squint all the time. At times I forgot to squint, and then the producer or director would remind me: Maria, squint, the main thing is to squint.

Maria was the only one who had not been selected at the casting. She was found by chance - that strong was her external resemblance.

Maria didn't know anything about her character, but when she saw a cheerful and confident woman on the photo, she immediately wanted to play the role.

- You know, she's such a boss, everything is strict with her, but at the same time she always smiles, and that's what I really liked about her.

What Sedov has to do with it all

The film's working title - Women's Right for Sea - is a reference to Georgy Sedov's pamphlet of the same name, released in 1908. The film shooting in Arkhangelsk began with scenes with the Sedov. Anastasia laughs that the name is perceived ambiguously: women really like it, but men are scared.

- Although in fact the man has suggested this name to us, - she explained. - In fact, historians have told me that Georgy Sedov was supposed to make this report at the conference, but he was not allowed. And then he decided to publish this brochure for his own money. But the brochure was banned and withdrawn from sale. Sedov was one of the first men who defended women's right to work at sea, to work on ships, and, he said, that this was nothing special.

Georgy Sedov really had a super sense of justice, as he had to go through hardships: he was the son of a peasant fisherman, his parents had nothing to pay for his studies, but at the first opportunity he entered school and managed to complete a three-year program in two years. Later, having overcome a lot of obstacles, he graduated from nautical classes in Taganrog. At the age of 21, Sedov became a long-distance navigator, at 24, having passed the external exam for the full course of the St. Petersburg Marine Corps, he was promoted to lieutenant in the Admiralty, and at 25 he was enrolled in active service at the Admiralty's Main Hydrographic Department.

- In fact, he fought for general equality, and women, most deprived of their rights at that time, took advantage of such a wonderful occasion. He did not take women on board during his famous expedition," the director said, noting that eventually it turned out to be for the best: the expedition was in extremely difficult conditions, where Sedov and another participant died.

Filming is underway

In the near future, filming will continue on the Solovki Islands, in Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk. Maria Malygina will perform pilot Olga Dobychina. Maria, a student of economics, admitted she always wanted to try acting. She was ready to cut her hair for the role, thus confusing some of the cast. Maria had a personal story connected with the sea.

- My father was a sailor. And to an extent, it's something personal, because my father died when I was two years old. Thus I want to get into what he lived by.

She has a ready answer to the question of how close she feels to the character when they are so similar.

- I believe she is a little bit in herself, serious, purposeful, and she doesn't care about rule or frames. That is, the rules and frames are only in the head, and she has very clearly shown the world that they may be ignored.

The director said her big dream was to return well-deserved memory to the characters, so that people learn about them, and so that those who used to know about them could remember those women.

- I believe it's a very social project. We are restoring certain historical justice, and, additionally, we are telling the audience about science, as it used to be back then and what it is like now," Anastasia said.

The film will be completed in September, and the first run is due in the fall. The project is financed by the Regional Cinema Support Fund.