psychologically. How would the young people build their identity, if they don’t want to become hunters.” Of the two brothers, Kolya follows in the footsteps of his ancestors as a whaler. Sasha, however, does not want to be a hunter, instead he works for a Canadian company, until the company goes bankrupt. Life in the region is meagre, and one does not have many choices here. The young women have mostly moved into big cities. The lot of the men is to hunt for sea mammals and to fish. When the schools have been completed and the foreign company no longer provides employment, there is nothing left to do other than to watch the television on drink, if one is not engaged in hunting and fishing. The helicopters of the Russian border guard follow the hunters, since the location is close to Alaska and the United States. One villager had sneaked out and gone to St. Lawrence Island, and this is no longer allowed to happen. Now the people of Novoye Chaplino can only dream about seeing their relatives on that island. The document has a slow pace. Neither Kolya nor Sasha are very talkative, and the soundtrack has been recorded separately. Reception According to Pia Ingström of Hufvudstadsbladet “this is a fine document that gives much food for thought”: Critic Taneli Topelius of Iltasanomat writes: The film was shown in several film festivals in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, and was also shown on Finnish TV on YLE TV1 in March 2014. Prizes 1. prize, documentary films shorter than one hour Barents Ecology Film Festival, Petrozavosk, Republic of Karelia, Russia, April 2013. Special mention by the jury International Film Festival Pecheurs du Monde, Lorient, Brittany, March 2013. External links Takigaks – Once Were Hunters in Facebook References Finnish documentary films