Lesnaya pesnya. Mavka

Another in the series of Ukrainian films. Undoubtedly, due to the complicated national situation of the Ukrainian people and the contemporary political reality, they turn to the lyrical world of folk myths and fairy tales (not only Ukrainian ones - lovers of ideas about the East as a non-European, the almost Tatar space, should also watch this film). The film truly corresponds to the folk traditional wisdom about the eternal interaction and struggle between the world of nature and the world of humans, about the balance between them - which, when disrupted, is dearly paid for. It is about the cruelty of both, depicted, of course, in the poetically captured relationship between the forest nymph and the local inhabitant. It is simply the understanding that just as in nature death means new life, and in the human world, death can mean a purifying sacrifice for something better. The distinct camera work (the circling camera shots were probably not easy to film in the forest) is accompanied primarily by beautiful mise-en-scène, where Mavka and other characters blend with the surrounding scenery not only on a content level, but also thanks to the coordination of costumes, lighting, and the environment (in various seasons) on a visual level. The film is a total poetic fairy-tale work of art. (09.04.2015)