A Heterotopia in a Space-Time Warp: (Re)programming Popular Memory in Two Russian Films about Svalbard

Abstract

The article analyses two films by Mikhail Malakhov Jr., Poljarnyj meridian (2017) and Arxipelag (2021), about the Russo-Swedish Arc-of-Meridian expedition to Svalbard in 1898-1902. The theoretical framework blends the heterotopical and heterochronic approach à la Foucault with the cultural memory discourse, represented by, among others, Rosenstone, Cento Bull & Hansen and Wijermars. An attempt is made to find out how and why the films, to a different degree, misrepresent both the expedition itself and the commemorative journeys that retraced it in 2014 and 2016.