Trans-Siberian Express (Siberiana)

On the longest railway in the world, which runs from Moscow to the Sea of Japan, a small group of Italian writers and journalists cross Asiatic  Russia. During the Moscow Book Fair the small delegation travels across a dramatically changing Russia, from the centre to the remote edges of the empire, through seven time zones and covering over seven thousand kilometres. Living together in the elegant, cramped carriages of the Trans-Siberian, as hundreds of kilometres of uninterrupted birch woods flicker past the windows, the event soon turns into a sort of vivacious school trip for grown-ups. What has happened to all the fur hats? And how can the girls in Irkutsk wear miniskirts at -40°C?
Luciana Castellina jogs memories of different Siberia, that of Stalin and the concentration camps, and another even more distant one of the exiles who stayed on to build the country after serving their time. A journey through space and time, seen from the knowledgeable and curious eyes of an activist-writer.