russian navy 24

In Siberia they call it the « highway of life »… and also the « highway of hell ». This is the M56, a 1200 km road route that crosses this region in the far Eastern part of the Russian Federation.
The M56 is an indispensable link for the people of the North of Siberia. Summer and winter long, thousands of trucks and hundreds of cars take this road to ensure supplies of food, drink and materials.
But this road to the other end of the world is also a real nightmare. First, because of its history: it was built between 1925 and 1964 by prisoners, "enemies of Communism" sent to the gulags, who never returned.
And today is still strikes fear. Driving conditions are particularly harsh. Here there’s no tarmac covering the surface, only thousands of rocks, far too big to drive on. There’s no car tyre that can resist them!
Dust, mud, vibrations, blizzards that can “overturn a truck” : when you take this road, you suffer! We accompany 3 truck drivers, among them, Igor, 42. He has three days ahead of him before he reaches Yakutsk, one of the most remote cities in Russia. He has to delivery his load of beer at all costs! Aboard his truck we discover the M56 : the highway of torture!

Every year the icy mists of Lake Baikal are the starting point for a testing journey for the men of the village of Kholodnaya on the northern shore of the lake. They must leave to carry supplies to the Evenks, reindeer herdsmen who live in isolation on the high plateaux of Siberia. For six months the herders have received no supplies. The winter has been too harsh for the supply trucks. Only Dmitri and a handful of men are prepared to take the risks in supplying these herders. They only have to travel 65 kilometers… and yet it takes them 48 hours! The spring has turned the road into a swamp. A veritable race against the clock is under way. Ruts, swollen rivers and forests: the six-wheel drive trucks will have a tough job taking on the natural elements. Sometimes there’s no other choice but to use the truck as a makeshift bulldozer to smash down the trees that block the road. When night falls with its icy temperatures, the mechanical parts are blocked with ice. And when nature forces the men to get out of the trucks another danger lurks… wolves. Further down in the valley, the thaw has transformed the Baikal into a deadly trap for those who live from it. In a very short time nothing will remain of the thick sheet of ice that has covered the lake the whole winter. Many fishermen have lost their lives on it, falling into water at 20. Because to find fish, they have to travel several kilometers across the surface of the lake, which is as big as Belgium. Anatoly, a fisherman, has just lost his best friend, whose car sank to the bottom of the lake in just seconds. Despite the danger, Anatoly has no choice but to chance the fragile melting ice. His 200 € monthly pension isn’t enough to feed himself properly. And when the lake becomes completely impracticable, they have to turn to an even more dangerous form of hunting: that of the great Siberian bear, the Grizzly.