BAM – Railroad to Nowhere (2008)

In 1974, Leonid Brezhnev, the secretary-general of the Communist Party of USSR, called for the Soviet youth to construct the 3500-kilometre-long arterial railway including a city and 200 stations in Baikal-Amur district, Russia (BAM) in order to use the immense amount of mineral resources of the area. Thousands of young people, including Estonians, went to work in Siberia, while believing in Brezhnev's idea. The railway was being constructed simultaneously from both ends and the top event was planned to be when the ends would finally meet. Brezhnev died in 1982 and BAM was not even close to completion. It was only twenty years later when with the support of private financiers the railway was fully complete. The documentary tells about the famous veterans of BAM who had faith in constructing future with their own hands. In today's harsh conditions the old men search for possibilities to retain human standard of living despite the fact that the rest of the world would rather forget about them. This is a film about extraordinary enthusiasm and mental strength of pioneers despite the absurdity of the times they lived in.