Serko

The film script for “Serko” was based on the book of the same name by Jean-Louis Gouraud, which in turn was based on the historical long ride by the Cossack Dmitry Peshkov. In 200 days he rode from Blagoveshchensk to St. Petersburg, where Peshkov was given an award by Tsar Alexander III, and his faithful horse Serko took up privileged residence in the royal stables.
To this day no one has broken Peshkov and Serko’s record. This historical fact was the starting point for the book “Serko” and later the French screen version, directed by Joël Farges.
During their long ride, Dmitry and Serko meet Evenks, Buryats, and Manchurians, and they find themselves in a community of Old Believers lost in the wilderness. Dmitry gets to know the cultures and customs of small ethnic groups who have no contact with civilization; they worship their gods and believe in the power of nature. Dmitry and Serko travel across all of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, from the Amur River, past Lake Baikal, and through all of Siberia to reach the palace of the Russian tsar.