History Film / SannikovLand

Alexander Ilyin, exiled for political reasons to Siberia, persuades Trifon Perfilyev, whose good mines are running dry, to finance his expedition to the legendary Sannikov Land in the Far North. Perfilyev agrees, hoping to find more gold in the land, and sends his servant Ignaty to accompany Ilyin (and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness to kill him and the other members of the expedition]], should the gold mines be discovered). Later, an adventurous officer Evgeny Krestovsky and Ilyin's friend, an escaped convict Vladimir Gubin, join the expedition too.

* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:The chief]] is murdered on the shaman’s orders midway through the film. In the novel, the former actually outlives the shaman [[spoiler:and, most likely, dies in the explosion with the rest of the Onkilons in the very end of the book]].

* AdaptationalWimp: Annuir is much more timid than in the novel.

** Unless, of course, he was actually aiming to hit [[spoiler:Annuir]] (he has a far stronger motive for killing [[spoiler:her]], while targeting [[spoiler:Ignaty]] seems rather pointless, [[spoiler:as he is the weakest and least useful one among the explorers and has never personally wronged Dukkar]]). In that case, this is a subversion of the trope: Dukkar did shoot his victim, but not the intended one. We never find out for certain.

** Unless, of course, he was actually aiming to hit [[spoiler:Annuir]] (he has a far stronger motive for killing [[spoiler:her]], while targeting [[spoiler:Ignaty]] seems rather pointless, [[spoiler:as he is the weakest and least useful one among the explorers and has never personally wronged Dukkar]]). In that case, this is a subversion of the trope: Dukkar did shoot his victim, but not the intended one.

* AdaptationNameChange: Downplayed with Annuir. Her name in the novel is Annu, and Annuir is a nickname, short for “Annu-ngirek”, Annu the Second. In the film, Annuir is her actual name.

* AdaptationalWimp: Annuir is much more timid than in the novel, playing straight the [[MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow Mellow Yellow]] trope.
* BittersweetEnding: Less bitter than in the novel, but still. [[spoiler:The chief, Ignaty and Krestovsky]] are dead, [[spoiler:Ilyin]] goes to the mainland but will probably find huge problems searching for new fundings, since Perfilyev is unlikely to give any money for Sannikov Land again, and [[spoiler:Annuir’s heart will probably be broken because Ilyin gives no indication he wishes to leave his fiancée]]. But [[spoiler:Gubin stays with the Onkilons and they have some chance to survive, and Setenkar becomes the new, good and capable, chief]]. Oh, and [[spoiler:the land’s unique ecosystem]] is destroyed, most likely, forever.

* EvilWearsBlack: All the Onkilons wear white and yellow, except for the two villains, the shaman and Dukkar, who are in black.

* AdaptationalVillainy: The shaman, one of the few more or less recognizable characters from the novel, is subject to that. He isn’t a nice guy in the novel and dislikes the Russian explorers from the start, but he never [[spoiler:plots to kill the chief]] and doesn’t do or say anything even against the explorers until the catastrophes begin. His film counterpart is murderous, power-hungry and ObviouslyEvil.

''Sannikov Land'' is a 1973 loose (bordering on InNameOnly) film adaptation of Vladimir Obruchev’s novel of the same name.

* BittersweetEnding: Less bitter than in the novel, but still. [[spoiler:The chief, Ignaty and Krestovsky]] are dead, [[spoiler:Ilyin]] goes to the mainland but will probably find huge problems searching for new fundings, since Perfilyev is unlikely to give any money for Sannikov Land again, and [[spoiler:Annuir’s heart will probably be broken because Ilyin gives no indication he wishes to leave his fiancée]]. But [[spoiler:Gubin stays with the Onkilons and they have some chance to survive, and Setenkar becomes the new, good and capable, chief]].

* SparedByTheAdaptation: Downplayed. [[spoiler:The Onkilons]] are implied to have perished or at best are on the brink of imminent death in the novel. In the film, the ending is more hopeful, with [[spoiler:Gubin staying behind to help them adjust to the cold]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: The shaman, one of the few more or less recognizable characters from the novel, is subject to that. He isn’t a nice guy in the novel and dislikes the Russian explorers from the start, but he never [[spoiler:plots to kill the chief]] and doesn’t do or say anything even against the explorers until the catastrophes begin. His film counterpart is murderous, power-hungry and ObviouslyEvil from the very start.

* AdaptationNameChange: Downplayed with Annuir. Her name in the novel is Annu, and Annuir is a nickname, short for “Annu-ngirek”, Annu the Second. In the film, she introduces herself as Annuir.

[[redirect:Literature/SannikovLand]]