Saturday 18th March 2017
Yula and Hanna Polak
Yula is a beautiful 10-year-old girl who lives in the shadow of the abundance of Moscow-in Europe's largest junkyard called the Svalka. Situated 13 miles from the Kremlin, just on the outskirts of Putin's big showcase of a city, the Svalka is a huge mountain of trash, 17 stories high and stretching for over 2 miles. It is a fenced, walled-in area, heavily guarded by security to keep intruders out. No trespassing and no filming is allowed here, where inside the dump's walls, criminal activity is unchecked. When one enters the Svalka, he becomes a slave employed by the mafia who run the dump's illegal recycling centers. Vodka is a currency here. For most of the people who enter the Svalka, this is their last stop before death, especially when the cold Russian winter storms sweep across this mountain of waste. Although life is grim and dismal for the Svalka's inhabitants, it also brings out the best in people. They generously share their vodka and last breadcrumbs with each other and.