The Northerners is a cycle of film essays with a focus on northern individualism. Each one of the three parts plays out in different places around the Kola Peninsula over one day. The story revolves around the everyday life of three people who share no formal ties. Igor, who belongs to a dynasty of pilots, is a polar aviation squad commander; Vasily is a tug master at Murmansk’s commercial port; Volodya is a woodcutter, leader of a logging guild. Like most of those living in the north of Russia, they came here for work, and though they weren’t initially planning on staying, they ended up staying forever.