| 130 Years of Silence The first feature-length documentary by the Timelab team, whose visual essays have garnered tens of millions of views and received accolades such as Vimeo’s Best of the Year and the New York City Drone Film Festival. The team’s short-form projects have been featured by leading platforms, studios, and brands — including Dolby, Netflix, BBC, The New York Times, HBO, Paramount, and Universal. Runtime: 52 minutes Budget: $350,000 Filming: August 2025 Release: May 2026 |
Purpose
A visual and humanistic reflection on the Wakhan Corridor — a singular region of Afghanistan, encircled by towering 7,000-metre peaks. Over 130 years ago, this narrow strip of land was carved out as a buffer zone between the Russian and British Empires, designed to prevent their borders from touching. The decision severed cultural ties and left the people of Wakhan not only cut off from the wider world, but also from one another.
Today, as plans emerge to build a strategic road from China, Wakhan’s centuries-old culture faces a profound threat. Through quiet observation of its inhabitants’ daily lives, the film explores how global geopolitical forces shape the fates of small and often overlooked communities.
Today, as plans emerge to build a strategic road from China, Wakhan’s centuries-old culture faces a profound threat. Through quiet observation of its inhabitants’ daily lives, the film explores how global geopolitical forces shape the fates of small and often overlooked communities.
Why This Film Matters Now
As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, China plans to open a border crossing with Afghanistan and construct a road that would cut through the Wakhan Valley — a route that could eventually become a key strategic corridor linking Asia and Europe.
For the local communities, this development carries the risk of losing a way of life preserved through centuries of isolation — their language, customs, and cultural identity all stand on fragile ground.
This film is a rare opportunity to visually document a vanishing world — a contribution to the preservation of an extraordinary cultural heritage before it is transformed beyond recognition.
For the local communities, this development carries the risk of losing a way of life preserved through centuries of isolation — their language, customs, and cultural identity all stand on fragile ground.
This film is a rare opportunity to visually document a vanishing world — a contribution to the preservation of an extraordinary cultural heritage before it is transformed beyond recognition.
Synopsis / Project Outline
At the heart of the film lies Timelab’s signature visual language: cinematic aerial imagery capturing the vastness of the Wakhan Corridor — its jagged peaks, glacial rivers, pastures, villages, and otherworldly high-altitude landscapes rising above 5,000 metres.
We follow the lives of Wakhi families in the villages of Sarhad, Langar, and Kargush, as well as in the remote mountain pastures far from permanent dwellings. Families work together in the fields and on the grazing lands, make cheese, prepare food, sew clothes, celebrate holidays, and welcome guests. Traditional games, including buzkashi — a dramatic horseback contest over a goat’s carcass — appear as part of everyday life.
Through these quiet, unhurried scenes of labour, learning, and ritual, the viewer is immersed in the rhythm of life — and invited to sense just how fragile this way of living is in the face of mounting change.
We follow the lives of Wakhi families in the villages of Sarhad, Langar, and Kargush, as well as in the remote mountain pastures far from permanent dwellings. Families work together in the fields and on the grazing lands, make cheese, prepare food, sew clothes, celebrate holidays, and welcome guests. Traditional games, including buzkashi — a dramatic horseback contest over a goat’s carcass — appear as part of everyday life.
Through these quiet, unhurried scenes of labour, learning, and ritual, the viewer is immersed in the rhythm of life — and invited to sense just how fragile this way of living is in the face of mounting change.
Target Audience & Distribution
The film is aimed at a broad international audience with a deep interest in contemporary auteur documentary cinema, remote regions, disappearing cultures, and powerful human stories.
International Film Festivals:
IDFA, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX, Dok Leipzig, Sundance, Moscow International Documentary FF “DOKer”, ArtDocFest и др.
Streaming Platforms and Broadcasters:
Netflix, ARTE, BBC Storyville, HBO Documentary, National Geographic, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, etc.
International Film Festivals:
IDFA, Visions du Réel, CPH:DOX, Dok Leipzig, Sundance, Moscow International Documentary FF “DOKer”, ArtDocFest и др.
Streaming Platforms and Broadcasters:
Netflix, ARTE, BBC Storyville, HBO Documentary, National Geographic, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, etc.
Team
Timelab is an international collective with over a decade of experience organising expeditions and managing production in some of the world’s most remote and extreme environments — including Greenland, Antarctica, Kamchatka, Chukotka, Wrangel Island, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, Mauritania, Chad, Afghanistan, Argentina, China, the UAE, and beyond.
The film’s colour grading will be crafted in Timelab’s signature visual style — a distinctive aesthetic recognised by audiences around the world.
An original score will be composed by Kirill Gorokhov and performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra — the very same studio behind the music for some of Netflix’s most prominent productions.
The film’s colour grading will be crafted in Timelab’s signature visual style — a distinctive aesthetic recognised by audiences around the world.
An original score will be composed by Kirill Gorokhov and performed by the Budapest Art Orchestra — the very same studio behind the music for some of Netflix’s most prominent productions.
- Andrew EfimovCreator & Concept Author
- Vladimir MikhailovDOP
- Artem ChirukihnDrone Pilot
- Ivan GolubkovDrone DOP
- Vitaly KarpovichProducer Postproduction, colorist
- Slava KurianovichCG-generalist
- Kirill GorokhovComposer
- Artem ZinovyevSound Producer