Anastasia Lapsui (Nenet) grew up speaking her native language in the village of Nida, located on the Yamal Peninsula, in northern Arctic Russia. After graduating from the University of the Urals in Sverdlovsk, Russia, Lapsui worked as a newspaper and radio journalist. Based in Helsinki today, she directs films with Markku Lehmuskallio. Their Seven Songs from the Tundra won Best Film at the 2001 Jussi Awards in Finland. Lapsui writes the scripts for their collaborative works and sometimes contributes hide tanning and sewing for the traditional clothing worn by the actors, who are usually local Nenet people. The filmmakers' latest production, A Bride of the Seventh Heaven, was inspired in part by an unusual chapter in Lapsui's childhood, when she experienced a period of blindness after she was taken away to boarding school.