Er. Based on story by Gogol (also called 'St John's Eve') and Ukrainian folk tales, this seems to be about a man who makes a pact with a devil, receives riches and is married but is responsible for the disappearance of a young boy. Then he goes through some kind of night-of-the-soul trauma, and I think she does too - at least is abducted by Mongols for a few minutes. There's some stuff about religion (priests cuckooing in trees), and lots and lots of fairly surreal imagery (miniature churches and windmills, jump cutting, people floating in the air, weirdly behaving animals) and scenes, and ultimately she cuts the rope of a boat she's been dragging and everything is OK. I think...
With touches of Pythonish childishness and much crazy camerawork and editing, like a Russian version of a mid-sixties Richard Lester film (there's even what looks like a reference to Tom Jones in there).
Very bizarre, and whether it stands up to close scrutiny I couldn't say. But quite beautiful and inventive.
I think I saw a cropped version of ultra-rare widescreen film as some of the image looked like it was missing.
With Boris Khmelnitskiy and Larisa Kadochnikova. On camera - Vadim Ilyenko.
Love it when you watch a film with only three IMDB reviews.
P.S. Available online now with English subtitles.
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