Cuckoo

Returning to his remote Yakutian hometown after years away, Arkady sets out to restore his ancestors’ graves but soon finds himself overwhelmed by the traumatic memories he once tried to escape. As he struggles with the shadows of his past, he becomes increasingly drawn to a strange neighbor whose unsettling behavior hides a dark and dangerous secret…

Though Cuckoo is set in and produced from the remote region of Yakutia, its director, Evgeny Nikolaev, hails from a very small village. He was born in 1995 in the village of Myandigui (Myandigi) in Yakutia.

Before turning to feature-length film, Nikolaev worked for five years as a director for the Amga Folk Theatre in Yakutia, and during that time he also took roles as assistant director, cameraman and actor in local film-projects.

The cinematographic context of Yakutia — where Nikolaev works — is increasingly known for its revival of indigenous storytelling, blending Sakha culture, remote landscapes, and psychological-horror themes. Cuckoo taps into this environment.

One striking fact: the Yakut filmmaking ecosystem allows directors like Nikolaev to shoot in natural conditions—forests, tundra, village homesteads—with relatively modest budgets, lending Cuckoo an uncanny authenticity that larger productions often struggle to achieve. While specific budget numbers aren’t widely published yet, Yakut films traditionally operate leanly. (This is contextual rather than from one citation.)