Slava’s Journey: Secrets of Snow (2020) Russian Film Week 2021

This is a glorious portrait of Slava Polunin and his legendary Snow Show. The man and the show have been touring the world for almost 3 decades bringing joy and wonder to everyone who sees it.

Yes I have seen the show. I saw the show several years back when it played Broadway the first time and I was floored by it. Yes it is a clown show but it is so wonderful and lovely that even if you hate clowns you will be moved to laughs and tears... and then there is the ending- a blinding blistering blizzard in the theater. I have never seen anything like it- ever.

SLAVA'S JOURNEY is magnificent. Part bio, part expose, part performance piece it is not a conventional documentary but more a cinematic attempt at bringing the emotion of the show to the viewer. No it will not reveal the whole show to you, but it will make you feel things like joy and wonder. It will remind you of what the show feels like and make you want to go see it if you haven't. 

Someone walked by while I was watching it and aught part of the film out of the film out of the corner of their eye and stopped. They then watched it over my shoulder, telling me to replay one part of the film again...and again saying "That was lovely I want to see it ne more time"

Yea, it's that kind of a film.

I love this film. It is an absolute delight. It is a film that makes you feel good even as it opens up your mind to something wonderful.

The film plays January 27th as part of Russian Film Week and is a must see. Because it is only 65 minutes the film is running with a Q&A about the film. I highly recommend you see this.

For details and more information go here.

Mara (Side Effect) (2020) Russian Film Week 2021

 

Wanting to help his wife forget a vicious assault a man makes a deal with a healer who will help her forget what happened. They move into the healer's spacious flat and everything seems fine until they start to have visions. Desperate to stop the weirdness consuming their lives the man tries to find out who he made a deal with and how he can get out of it.

After a WTF was that opening (I mean that in a good way) this creepy horror film slowly builds in fear as we are dragged along into hell. I love that the film takes it's time in telling us what is going on we are not told anything until we need to be informed, so that tidbits like the opening suddenly click with an "ah ha!" as revelations later on in the film show us what was going on. In its way its so nicely plotted that when the film ended I rewatched a couple of sections in the film just to see how they played knowing what comes later.

I really liked this film a great deal. Its a beautifully made film that melds modern horror with classical supernatural tales. Its so good that the only thing about it I really can complain about is the use of black light colors for some of the images at one point.

Definitely worth a look when the film plays Saturday during Russian Film Week. Details can be found here.