Something Better to Come

Filmmaker Hanna Polak's empathetic HBO-aired documentary looks at the community that has built up around Russia's Svalka, the world's biggest landfill, which is located 13 miles from the Kremlin. Although filming is forbidden, Polak spent 14 years documenting the inhabitants, eventually narrowing her focus to 10-year-old Yula. Many residents have medical problems, but say they would rather die in Svalka than travel into town where no one will treat them (which is exactly what happens when Polak helps to smuggle someone out for a trip to a hospital). Yula's mother says that she was devastated when her father died of tuberculosis. "I want a normal life," Yula says. "Not the one I have." She and others sleep on dirty mattresses and do what they can to keep their meager belongings dry, but they're also playful and resourceful, and find ways to listen to the radio and make music, even though the rest of society shuns them. When Polak catches up with Yula two years later, nothing has changed, except the color of her hair, and on subsequent visits Yula is seen drinking and hanging out with a male companion. From time to time, police burn down the huts, but the people continue to build new ones. When Yula becomes pregnant, she stays with a relative, but this experience is worse than living in the dump, so she returns. Just when it seems she'll never get out, Yula's situation starts to improve in this grim but ultimately hopeful documentary. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)