Sarafan

It is the day before the wedding and the Russian bride receives one piece of advice: "Cry bride, cry! Cry now, so you don't have to in your new life." Marriage in Russia is surrounded by rituals that, like so many traditions nowadays, have greatly changed. An old woman remembers when "things were a lot more discreet. We had more fun: we locked up newlyweds in the bathhouse and gave them bread and salt on embroidered towels." Sarafan begins with mysterious images of a steaming wash tub, in which angular shoulders turn a stick around. A white feather lands on the water. These stylised images are alternated with old photographs of weddings, inducing vivid, but also sad stories. One woman recalls how they had to borrow everything for her wedding and had to bring it back the next day. "Love? I think there was some love." Meanwhile, the preparations for the new marriage are made, but the wind hinders things: it blows so hard that the tablecloths on a long table by the lake do not remain in place. The old photograph that concludes the film, with the bridal couple's emotionless expression, does not augur well. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)