Chris Marker who is generally considered part of the French "New Wave'" filmmakers that showed up towards the end of the 1950's, didn't exactly fit in with that bunch which included Truffaut, Goddard, Rivette and Chabrol. Marker was interested in more than just making films.
Marker was essentially an artist working in different types of visual media. One of his interests was the short form essay, not exactly a documentary and not exactly a fictional film. Letter from Siberia is a fascinating film made early in his career.
Traveling to Siberia, Maker documented Siberian life which at the time was considered a vast mysterious and foreboding expanse barely inhabitable. Maker's film shows an area which indeed was vast but he also shows the lives of the inhabitants which range from reindeer riding Siberian cowboys to workers constructing gigantic power plants and cities in order to harvest the natural resources of Siberia.
Marker's presentation with the omniscient narration, spoofs of animated cartoons, pet bears and satires of western advertising is very witty. Marker continued to work on and off in the film world. His best known film is his clever time travel story La Jetée which was later turned into the Terry Gilliam film 12 Monkeys.
Written by Chris Marker, the running time is 62 minutes.
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