The Nuuccha Within: Sakha Cinema and the Inextricable Other in the Postcolonial Imagination

• In Event: Left Perspectives on Decolonization and Geopolitics III: Transnational Flows and the Falsifiable "Center" and "Periphery"

Abstract

Sakha (Yakut) cinema has emerged as one of the most distinctive indigenous film movements of the 21st century, asserting a decolonial voice through narratives that explore identity, historical trauma, and cultural autonomy within the Russian Federation. While exploring uniquely Shakha subjects, filmmakers surface an inescapable tension: the presence of the nuuccha—the Russian outsider—who remains integral to Sakha's self-definition. Whether portrayed as an antagonist, victim, or uneasy neighbor, the nuuccha presents as deeply embedded in the region's historical consciousness. This paper examines how Sakha filmmakers engage with the Other—not as a binary opposition but as an unavoidable element in the decolonization process. Films like Stepan Burnashev's Aita (2022) and Vladimir Munkuev's Nuuccha (2021) interrogate how Sakha identity has been shaped in response to Russian presence. Through narratives of interethnic conflict, attempts at reconciliation, and cyclical colonial violence, these films reveal complexities that defy simplistic center/periphery categorizations. The transnational flow between the supposed center and periphery becomes particularly evident in Aleksey Balabanov's influence on Sakha cinema. Labeled as "the most Russian of all directors," Balabanov's preoccupations with violence, historical trauma, and cultural disintegration have been transformed within Sakha filmmaking. Yet this relationship is not unidirectional—Sakha directors reconfigure his techniques through Indigenous perspectives, creating a dialogic relationship that challenges presumed hierarchies of influence. The analysis aims to demonstrate how Sakha cinema creates a "third space" of cultural production—neither purely indigenous nor merely reactive to Russian influence, but a generative zone where new cultural forms emerge that destabilize both colonial and nationalist narratives, challenging traditional concepts of center and periphery in post-colonial discourse.

Author

• Anna Nieman, Independent Scholar