THE WEDDINGS PEOPLE HAVE
Director: Natalia Kadyrova
Producer: Lyudmila Shamanova
Production: RT Documentary TV channel, rtdoc.tv online streaming service
What is a “real Russian wedding”? What about a Kabardian one? Or Nenets? What are the origins of the bride buying custom, the white dress, and the civil registration office? How the rituals change today, and what meaning do the participants assign to them? And why do the Russians today seek to return to the forgotten customs?
“The weddings people have” took almost a year to shoot. Over that period, Natalia Kadyrova, the writer and the director of the documentary, has witnessed weddings in seven regions of Russia, stretching from Nalchik to Chukotka, has studied the wedding rituals, and has interviewed numerous couples to learn why they chose to bring the forgotten customs back to modern life.
The starting point of the documentary was the “Weddings of the world” project by Denis Knyazev, who sought to capture the variety of wedding rituals and create a sort of manual for those who would like to wed “by the book.”
By watching the documentary, you will learn how to properly make pancakes to please you future mother-in-law, why they always serve salt with a bread loaf at a Russian wedding, and why at a Shapsug wedding, the parents of the newlyweds never come to the registration ceremony.