Caspian Hub (2022)

The Caspian Sea washes the shores of five countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenia, Iran and Azerbaijan. So the history of this largest lake in the world has always been intertwined with the history of the people living on its shores. These days, there is a ferry crossing the sea, which is the main setting for Denis Shabanov's documentary Caspian Hub. It is on this ferry that we meet our protagonists, learn their stories and dreams. The camera follows what is going on in their personal lives, their search for happiness against a backdrop of the primordial elements, combining narrative film and documentary elements to show the internal polyphony of individual human stories, with the powerful forces of nature as the backdrop. After all, it is this primordial power that contrasts so aptly with the transience of human life.