Review: A group of residents in an Estionian village use magic and folklore to survive the winter.

Another film where I'm going in pretty cold. All I know is that it's an Estonian production, and it's doing well on the festival circuit for over a year.


After the opening scene, I was quickly saying to myself internally, "You should have prepared yourself" as I witnessed some of the strangest images put to screen I have ever seen.
I was fearing the worst that I wouldn't get this. But as I have it a chance, I did notice many striking images, wonderful cinematography and great use of filming in black & white.
I am happy to say that managed to get a grip this world that I've been transported to, and from then on I was enjoying almost all of it.
There was still some surreal moments that I don't think I'll ever work out the reasoning for it. But on the whole, I was pleased get invested in what is essentially a fairy tale.


All the cast were pretty good. But it was only Rea Lest and Jorgen Liik that were stand-outs. This was just on the basis of how they executed some of the films more moving scenes and their performances truly enhanced it.


As mentioned before, the technical side is very strong. The cinematography makes every shot look like a painting masterpiece, the score makes great use of the woodland location that almost made it feel like a horror.
The striking visuals was what was keeping me going in the first half, and there was plenty to keep me invested.


So once I understood the tone and lore of this land not so dissimilar to a fairy tale, I got really into it. It was quite captivating in the end.


Parts of the story for me still look random and weird. But there was still plenty of plot going on that had me invested in this strange tale of love, obsession with little bits of comedy that flirt between quirky and black. It almost had a Shakespearen tone to it.
But I would also see it as Ingrid Bergman's version of The Witch with hints of The Village.
With all of that as well as the spectacular imagery, haunting and eerie score and wonderful utilisation of showing it black & white gave me quite a surreal yet rewarding experience.


This is most definitely not for mainstream audiences. But if you want something that's odd, challenging and that you want to commit to try and understand it, then this is definitely worth your time. It's films like this that keep showing us how out-there you can go with a story but still get the same sort of love as a big budget blockbuster would.


Rating: 8/10