Sannikov Land is a 1973 very loose (bordering on In Name Only) film adaptation of Vladimir Obruchev’s novel of the same name.
Alexander Ilyin, exiled for political reasons to Siberia, persuades Trifon Perfilyev, whose gold 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 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.
As it turns out, Sannikov Land does exist and is populated by an Asian people called the Onkilons. The chief of the Onkilons welcomes the explorers, but the shaman doesn’t, constantly provoking conflicts with the guests. One such conflict spirals out of control, as it threatens the fragile climate balance of the land.
The film presents examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The pre-expedition storyline is much longer than in the novel. In the novel, it takes only a few pages for the main character to find a sponsor, and the group is already assembled and ready. In the film, it takes some time for Ilyin to convince Perfilyev to fund the expedition, and then he has to search for his future companions (except for Ignaty who agrees to go on Perfilyev’s orders).
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The Onkilons and the Russians easily understand each other from the very start, for some reason. In the novel, a Yakut from among the explorers acted as interpreter at first, because he knew Chukchi and the Onkilon language was similar to it. In the film, it seems that the Onkilons have somehow learned Russian. Or that their language is identical to some other language that all of the explorers know.
- Adaptation Name Change: Downplayed with Annuir. Her name in the novel is Annu, and Annuir is a nickname, short for “Annu-ngirak”, Annu the Second. In the film, Annuir is her actual name.
- Adaptational Heroism: The chief is a Reasonable Authority Figure who helps the explorers and protects them from the shaman (who, in turn, is hit with heavy Adaptational Villainy). In the novel, the chief quickly grows suspicious of the explorers and supports the shaman working against them.
- Adaptational Modesty: In the novel, the potential brides are naked during the wife-choosing festival. Naturally, they are clothed in the film.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Sannikov Land is still an oasis of warm weather in the Arctic, but, unlike its book counterpart, doesn't have any Not So Extinct Pleistocene humans and fauna walking around.
- Adaptational Origin Connection: In the book, the Natural Disaster Cascade occurred soon after the explorers' arrival thanks to a Contrived Coincidence. Here, it begins thanks to Ignaty firing a gun into the air.
- Adaptational Villainy: 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 plots to kill the chief and doesn’t do or even say anything against the explorers until the catastrophes begin. His film counterpart is murderous, power-hungry, sadistic and Obviously Evil.
- In the novel, he has at least some justification for being instantly wary about the explorers because, more than four hundred years ago, his predecessor predicted that people from the continent would one day bring disaster to the Onkilons. In the film, no such thing is mentioned.
- In the novel, human sacrifice is clearly used by him as a last resort; the only people whose deaths he is responsible for are the sacrificed Vampu prisoner and Raku (a Murder by Inaction of which the rest of the Onkilons are also guilty). In the film, he suggests sacrificing the explorers right away and wants to kill them as slowly and tortuously as possible; he also orders the chief killed when the latter opposes him and seizes power for himself.
- Adaptational Wimp: Annuir is much more timid and shy than in the novel. For example, she hides until the end of the wife-choosing festival and then confesses her love for Ilyin when they are alone (Dukkar is watching them, but she doesn’t know that). Her novel counterpart announces that she wants to marry Ordin at the festival, in front of everyone, including the chief, the four men she rejected and Ordin's already-chosen first wife.
- Bittersweet Ending: Less bitter than in the novel, but still. The chief, Ignaty and Krestovsky are dead, 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 Annuir’s heart will probably be broken because Ilyin gives no indication he wishes to leave his fiancée. Oh, and the land’s unique ecosystem is destroyed, most likely, forever. But Gubin stays with the Onkilons and they have some chance to survive, and Setenkar becomes the new, good and capable, chief.
- The Cavalry: Just when it looks like nothing can stop the shaman from slowly killing the heroes, Setenkar appears with his loyalists and shoots him.
- Darker and Edgier: Zig-zagged. The stakes for the protagonists are much higher than in the novel: Perfilyev is barely persuaded to finance the expedition and plans to get the explorers killed if they find the gold, and the shaman wants to kill them in very painful ways from the start – in the novel, the money was given by a kindhearted academic and the Onkilons never threatened the explorers' lives until things became really desperate. However, in the ending, the future of the Onkilons and Sannikov Land looks way brighter than in the novel.
- Death by Adaptation: The chief is murdered on the shaman’s orders midway through the film. In the novel, the former actually outlives the shaman and, most likely, dies in the eruption with the rest of the Onkilons in the very end of the book.
- The Drag-Along: Ignaty only goes on the expedition because Perfilyev orders him to.
- Evil Is Hammy: The shaman, the Big Bad of the plot, makes sure all the eyes are on him in any scene he is in. Justified, since the whole success of his evil plans depends on him being charismatic enough to rally the people to fight.
- Evil Wears Black: All the Onkilon men wear white and yellow, except for the two villains, the shaman and Dukkar, who are in black.
- I Will Wait for You: Annuir promises Ilyin she will wait for him to return (after he gently refuses to let her go with him).
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Dukkar manages to shoot Ignaty right through the heart from several hundred yards away.
- Unless, of course, he was actually aiming to hit Annuir (he has a far stronger motive for killing her, while targeting Ignaty seems rather pointless, 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 does shoot his victim, but not the intended one. We never find out what his plan really was.
- Jealous Romantic Witness: When Annuir confesses her love for Ilyin (his response is rather reserved as he has a fiancee at home), they are watched by Dukkar who has a Villainous Crush on Annuir and was rejected by her only minutes ago at the wife-choosing festival. This event cements Dukkar's hatred of Ilyin and the rest of the explorers, and he spends the rest of the film being The Dragon to the murderous, sadistic local shaman.
- Lean and Mean: The shaman is extremely tall and extremely thin (his actor Makhmud Esambayev was a famous dancer). He starts by plotting to kill the explorers, and it only gets worse.
- Lovable Coward: Ignaty is constantly afraid of everything and at first only thinks of the gold they may find in Sannikov Land. However, as he gradually warms up to the group and the Onkilons, he turns out to be a very nice guy.
- Only in It for the Money:
- Perfilyev convinces Ignaty to join the expedition by promising him a share of the gold, if it’s found in Sannikov Land.
- Inverted with Krestovsky, who instantly agrees to accompany Ilyin when the latter says he can’t pay him for the expedition.
Krestovsky: That suits me! I don’t like to think about money! - Pragmatic Adaptation: The Vampu, the Pleistocene fauna and the eruption would have been very hard to film, considering the limited possibilities of special effects at the time. So half of the film goes by before the expedition even reaches Sannikov Land, and the land is only a warm oasis with no sapient creatures apart from the Onkilons and no mammoths or woolly rhinoceroses living there.
- Race Lift: The Onkilons are Asian in the novel. In the movie, the directors decided to make them a separate dark-skinned blonde race, to emphasize how different Sannikov Land is from its closest neighbors.
- Scenery Porn: Filmed in the Gulf of Finland and in the Valley of Geysers on Kamchatka.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Downplayed. 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 Gubin staying behind to help them adjust to the cold.
- Villainous Crush: Dukkar, The Dragon to the shaman, is in love with Annuir. The fact that she rejects him during the wife-choosing festival doesn’t deter him.
