On the Arctic plains, the Nenets tribespeople are gathering for a unique festival. Skidding across the frozen Tundra in sleds pulled by furry reindeer, they celebrate an antique culture which Communism failed to destroy. After herding reindeer through the white daylight hours, they shelter from the Arctic freeze in leather tipis, eating raw fish and drinking frozen streamwater. But as the elders crouch by their smoky fires, they talk anxiously about a multi-billion dollar pipeline project. American oil giant Amoco and the Russian Gazprom pose the biggest threat to their nomadic lifestyle since Stalin. Timofei, a Nenets leader, is despondent: 'they will take all the gas and leave all the rubbish'. Promises by the oil companies to preserve the landscape are viewed with scepticism. Gifts are treated with suspicion. But independent observers fear that financial bribes might eventually ruin the Nenets once and for all. An intimate document of Nenets culture as it faces the lure of development.

Produced by ABC Australia