Plot Synopsis

From award-winning director Franz Hafner, RUSSIA'S WILD SEA is a two-part special that chronicles the stories of the inhabitants in and near the Sea of Okhotsk, presenting contrasts of the sea's beauty and surrounding wilderness. Located almost 4,000 miles from Moscow in Russia's Far East, the Sea of Okhotsk is a constant survival battleground for humans and a range of wildlife that includes orcas and humpback whales, as well as tigers prowling the forests. In the Sea of Okhotsk, animal and human lives are intimately connected in ways that allow no room for error, and every decision is a matter of life or death. Riddled with typhoons in the summer, covered with packed ice in the winter and shaken by earthquakes and volcanoes overlooking its shore, the sea is an unpredictable and dangerous place. A rare, pristine natural region, this wild sea is home to millions of wild animals and the site of spectacular rocky coastlines, scores of untamed rivers and never-ending primeval forests. It is a place of both plenty and starvation, a paradise which doubles as an ultimate endurance test for living creatures. RUSSIA'S WILD SEA explores this unforgiving environment and the ingenious adaptations that make life possible in spite of hardship, as well as gentler times of abundance when life flourishes. With no roads reaching the shores of the sea, the filmmakers, led by Hafner, arrived by plane and explored by ship, withstanding conditions such as tsunamis, pack ice, typhoons and thick fogs to capture the incredible landscape and wildlife. Granted full, exclusive access to the area, Hafner has produced the first exhaustive documentary on the region.