It Lives Under the Snow

Azerbaijan, Singapore | 2025 | Fiction | 16 min

Director: Igor Smola

Screenwriter: lgor Smola & Arzuman Mirzasoy

Executive Producer: Arzuman Mirzasoy

Producer: Igor Smola, Gregory Bagaev, Emil Najafov, Alvil Lee, Ilkin Mahammadli, Duyghu Davali, Serkan Yegen, Elmaddin Aliyev

Cinematographer: Alisa Tarelicheva

Editor: Igor Smola

Art Director: Igor Smola & Alisa Tarelicheva

Sound: Igor Smola

Music: Igor Smola

Starring: Yunis Sarkarov, Arzuman Mirzasoy, Rahman Abayev, Saleh Sarkarov, Rahman Sarkarov, Aflan Zalov, Mirza Huseynov, Javid Aslanov

导演: Igor Smola

编剧: Igor Smola & Arzuman Mirzasoy

监制: Arzuman Mirzasoy

制片: Igor Smola, Gregory Bagaev, Emil Najafov, Alvil Lee, Ilkin Mahammadli ,Duyghu Davali，Serkan Yegen，Elmaddin Aliyev

摄影指导: Alisa Tarelicheva

剪辑: Igor Smola

美术指导: Igor Smola & Alisa Tarelicheva

声音: Igor Smola

音乐: Igor Smola

主演: Yunis Sarkarov, Arzuman Mirzasoy, Rahman Abayev, Saleh Sarkarov, Rahman Sarkarov, Aflan Zalov, Mirza Huseynov, Javid Aslanov

Synopsis

In a village where people have been disappearing for years, a group of locals join two men to search for Murad, who recently vanished. They explore a local myth about a mysterious creature living under the snow. Their journey will uncover a secret deeper than they could have imagined.

Festival&Award

Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2025

Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2026

Director's Note

The film, inspired by "Pedro Páramo" and Orhan Pamuk’s "Snow," blends rational and mystical events in a place trapped under snow. Disappearances can be explained logically or through a local myth about a hidden creature. "It Lives Under the Snow" symbolizes existence beyond clear understanding, were fear fuels imagination, often more terrifying than reality. The creature remains unseen, but its presence pervades the film.

Igor Smola

Igor Smola (b. 1989, Murmansk-150) is a self-taught Russian filmmaker whose hybrid shorts have screened at Sarajevo, Busan, FNC, Zinebi, True/False, Go Short and Sheffield Doc/Fest. Works: Trigger, Destruction, POV Memory, OIL I: My Name is Oil. His latest, It Lives Under the Snow, world-premiered in Winterthur.