Understanding Yakut regional cinema from the perspective of social theory: symbolic production and imagined community

Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of Yakut cinema as a form of symbolic production and a mechanism of representation of the cultural identity of the Sakha people in the post-Soviet period. Considering the Yakut film boom as a socio-cultural phenomenon, the author relies on the theoretical approaches of Pierre Bourdieu (the concept of symbolic capital and cultural field) and Benedict Anderson (imagined communities). Attention is paid to the role of traditional epic, soundscape and national language in the formation of this phenomenon. Yakut cinema is considered as a modern medium of collective memory, contributing to the preservation and reproduction of the subjectivity of the ‘imagined community’. It also analyses the institutional conditions for the formation of Yakut cinema, in particular, independent regional distribution as a mechanism of cultural autonomy. It is concluded that regional cinema is capable of acting as an autonomous cultural field that mobilises the community's internal resources, forms collective memory, and supports local identity.