Rating: 4/5
In childhood, a single pearl can be the antidote to a chicken plague, and a polecat can also be a vampire or your biological father — fantasy and horror intermingle in uncertainty
The film is replete with irrational longing and terror — an Alice in Wonderland that eradicates the line between Wonderland and reality — where escape is only a smash cut away, but another trouble is just around the corner
If you are bothered, you are in good company — the Communist leaders who financed this were also upset by the lack of social realism and ironic bent that keeps capital T truth at arm’s length
Outside of its cultural context, the film still flourishes with Tarkovsky-like pastoral scenes and enigmatic surrealism — a familiar folktale in its depiction of the monsters that prey on children — vampires, priests, and husbands of friends are equally threatening, all desperate to steal youth for themselves
Perhaps most troubling is the lack of any polemic on right or wrong — everything beckons, so you must decide what is right