10 days living with Siberian Nomads

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:09][music] [music] >> For most of the year, everything is frozen.

[00:00:28]And yet, >> [music] >> people live here.

[00:00:31]We came here to understand that, to experience, [music] even for a moment, what life looks like in one of the harshest environments on Earth, and to meet the people who call this place home.

[00:00:51]They are Nenets, a nomadic indigenous group living in the Arctic regions of northern Russia. And for generations, they've moved across this land with their reindeer, following migration routes that haven't really changed in centuries. That's why Chema and I are here. We are drawn to how different cultures live in such extremely different ways. Temperatures can drop to as low as -60° C, and there's not much around for hundreds of kilometers.

[00:01:18]Why choose this life in a place this [music] unforgiving?

[00:01:43]In the middle of the vast emptiness, the one thing that stands out is their home.

[00:01:48]It's called a chum.

[00:01:52]A simple structure made from wooden poles [music] and reindeer skin. It holds heat well, its cone-shaped form withstands [music] the wind, and most importantly, it can be taken down and rebuilt quickly.

[00:02:16]Inside, [music] there's always a fire, the heart of the chum, an oven that never really goes out.

[00:02:49]The oven keeps [music] the space warm and acts as their stove.

[00:03:06]We started to realize that they've adapted to a way of life where the cold is essential.

[00:03:13]>> [music] >> Snow evens everything out, and what would normally be harsh, uneven terrain becomes something [music] you can actually move across.

[00:03:21]Rivers freeze and turn into roads.

[00:03:24]And when it's time to migrate, instead of carrying things, they just pull them, loading everything onto their sledges, that glide across the snow.

[00:03:32]For generations, [music] that's been done with reindeer, but now, it's mostly snowmobiles.

[00:03:38]Food just has to stay outside, frozen in a natural [music] freezer. The food itself is simple, raw meat, raw fish, and whatever they were able to bring the [music] last time they went to a supermarket, which doesn't happen often.

[00:03:56]So, we're [music] we're basically eating raw pieces of fish they just ate.

[00:04:01]Took it out of a bucket.

[00:04:14]This winter was different. This family doesn't have their reindeer. It was such a harsh and cold winter that they had to leave them behind in the mountains and move to a safer place.

[00:04:24]All right, so we're about to start on a journey now. It's about 3 hours long.

[00:04:28]Chema and I will be sitting here in [music] the back sled. Uh doesn't look extremely comfortable, but uh it's the space that they have for us, so.

[00:04:36]>> [music] >> And now that spring is starting to come back, it's time to go find them, to go back into the mountains, [music] bring them down, and begin the migration again.

[00:04:48]>> [music] >> Our snowmobile just broke down. We're currently uh trying to solve the problem, and uh that means the Nenets can fix pretty much any situation, so we'll probably be fine.

[00:05:12]We just arrived at a friendly Nenets camp. They're currently uh checking with them to see if they have any information on the reindeers in the region, and then we're going to continue the search.

[00:05:30]We just got here to the top of the mountain. Uh Yakub and Anatoly are headed to uh locate the reindeer and herd them in.

[00:05:49]>> [music] >> The biggest shock for Chema and I was realizing that, although these past 10 days were challenging for us, this is simply life for the Nenets.

[00:06:37]>> [music] >> It has been their life long before we arrived, and it'll remain their life long after we leave.

[00:06:44]So, they keep [music] going, a nomadic life, always on the move, surviving today while preparing for the next winter.

[00:06:53]Thank you to Yakub, Tatiana, Anatoly, Marina, and little Dima for welcoming us into your home, and allowing us to document a small part of your everyday life.

[00:07:08]So, we're trying to film the Nenets for the first time, but they are so fast, they move so fast in the snow, and we are just falling all over the place, and it's hard. It's hard to keep up with them.

[00:07:31]All right, so they they had um basically like raw bacon on the plate, and they eat it raw. And I asked if they have ever cooked it before. They never cooked it before.

[00:07:49]Good? Yo, we are we are showing the Nenets bacon.

[00:08:02]No meal here.

[00:08:04]Oh, Dima's crying again.

[00:08:14]Chema, it's time to eat.

[00:08:18]It's time to eat.

[00:08:19]Food's on the table.