This strange, unlike anything seen from the movie hooked me so much that I watched it twice a day. Perhaps I would like to see more of these original works in our cinema. It seemed to me that it reflects precisely the Russian perception of the world, the Russian soul - dreary, unembracing, naive, looking for something unknown. . .
The genre is a documentary, but only partially. Only his problems and performance (for example, the dialogues of the characters, very prosaic, "not staged"; I think the characters are mostly not actors) somehow relate to reality, and in general, the hero seeks to move away from the real world to the unreal world, seeks it, finds the way to it. The fabulous past has died out, drowned in the unreal world, and only barely noticeable traces remain on the surface.
And there’s nothing supernatural about these tracks... but there’s something. In an icon floating on water. A horse with a foal. In frightening old women who seem to say the most ordinary things, but somehow they are not at ease. Everything seems mysterious, strange, out of this world. A huge role in this is played by meditative video sequence and soundtrack. I enjoyed the footage of the forest, general and close-up plans, camera footage. I experienced a perfect match between the atmosphere of the film and my own perception of the forest. For me, the forest is always the realm of the unknown, a world where the line between realities becomes thinner, where indeed sometimes you look at the road and see nothing, but you feel that it is not empty.
The mermaids were a little upset. Well, first of all, there can't be mermaids with tails on trees. Forest mermaids had no tails, and tails are a Western tradition. And then the mermaids came out very modern. I guess I would have filmed them differently than the wood spirits in the form of girls. Perhaps I would not portray them so tangiblely, “in a human way.”
I also didn’t like the “cosmos” at the end. It looked artificial compared to the rest of the video. And although the idea of a complete transition to the other world I liked, fascinated with something, this picture seemed alien.
In general, I am a fan of this genre. I would love to watch movies all day long about the strangeness and secrets of Russian villages, forests, lakes and rivers. There are so many mysteries, legends, beliefs - at least draw a spoon. Bow to those who understand this and strive to reflect the richness of Russian mysteries, the Russian incomprehensible past.
I enjoyed watching the film ' Atlantis of the Russian North' and I was looking forward to my new work - 'Tales of Mother' hoping for a lyrical and sublime continuation of the theme of the Russian North.
Alas! All my expectations were in vain! Instead of the flying (literally and figuratively) camera work of the first film, I saw gloomy, depressing, ineptly shot footage showing some ridiculous plotless wanderings & #39; lost & #39; a man allegedly collecting fairy tales. In fact, these tales turn out to be clumsy fables about evil spirits, all the actions of the character are accompanied by dull, suggestive music and some moo, most reminiscent of the kamlaniya of Tibetan priests. Really from the musical series of the picture got a headache! The main character is pursued by glamoured mermaids with plastic tails, some scraps of meanings are served about the great Christian civilization of the Russian North, the hero runs away from the temples, obviously the swamp scum and healers are closer to him, well, everything like this ...
A clear failure! Although it is objectively worth noting that successful shots and decisions in the film are still present, but the director does not allow them to develop, and everything is silenced by depression. I am so sorry for my time spent on this painting!
The film “Tales about Mom” is the second project of the creative team of director Sophia Gorlenko, screenwriter Gleb Kuznetsov, cameraman Daniil Salkhov and composer Marat Faizullin.
The authors reveal to us one of the most dramatic pages of national history. Their story concerns the theme of the decay of life and traditions of the Russian North. In search of the focus of this heritage, the film crew, having passed thirty lands, finds its Tritieth Kingdom - Kenozersky Krai - the Kenozero region, Lokshmozer and the upper reaches of the Onega River in the Arkhangelsk region.
When it comes to the Kenozero Territory, images of something unfulfilled or, more accurately, unrealizable immediately appear. It was on the road to Kenozero that the famous Russian folklorist Alexander Fyodorovich Gilferding died in 1872. Zaonezh storytellers epics, which he after Pavel Nikolaevich Rybnikov began to write down, modestly did not recognize their birthright and claimed that epic tales in their original form are known only to Kenozersk. The failure of the Kenozer expedition of Hilferding hid from modernity the true treasury of the Russian epic. Later, in 1902-1904, these places were explored from the point of view of fine art and architecture by Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin. However, his discovery of the uniqueness of North Russian culture was tragically late. Once, in the XV-XIX centuries, a rich and crowded region, in the twentieth century experienced all the vicissitudes of the history of his native country and by the end of the century began to quietly sink into oblivion. It is around the mesmerizing interworld, twilight, the boundary position of this land between the world of the living and the dead, between our time, the past of living peasant life and pre-tuple epic antiquity, the main storyline of the film is built.
The narrator sails along the Lokshmozer in a boat like ancient mythological heroes. On his way come across various places and people, but the main meeting in the film with the very life world of Kenozero with its chapels, mermaids, bells, watermen and witches, “connoisseurs”. This meeting awakens feelings of bright sadness, sadness for the bygone way of life of the northern peasantry and longing for something to come to pass on this land. But not now. Oblivion enveloped the Kenozersk Territory, as the waters of Belozer once hid the legendary city of Kitezh.
The film was released as a documentary, but this documentary is of a special kind. The true testimony of an eyewitness here does not oppose artistic fiction, but relies on it. It is in high artistic fiction, in the dream of the heavenly city that the truth of the film and the truth of Kenozero is found.
10 out of 10
I immediately note that the film “Tales of Mother” is an amazing picture, after watching which, there is a desire to reconsider it again. To be honest, I have not seen high-quality and spectacular shooting of the area for a long time and not only. There are different programs on TV, they are now pond-pond, and the shooting is clumsy, strange. Like a country, settlements, areas all sorts of show and should about the sights, the beauty of places, and there about food, transport, five-star hotels, evening salutes, diluted with advertising.
The film “Tales of Mother” makes you think. Throughout the picture, there is a certain thread connecting the past and the present.
It's very appropriate to pause, without them the film would have disappeared. Again, it’s about amazing aerial photography and not only. Computer graphics do not spoil, but only emphasize the beauty of the region. The views are beautiful and spectacular. It is good that in the fall they filmed, the colors are stunning, directly fascinates and the expanses, expanses. Total delight and that's all!! And the constant question is: How? How was it possible to do this?
In the film, every shot is a masterpiece. Lots of allegories and images. Throughout the picture there is a feeling that nature is a continuous living organism and everything is interconnected, everything breathes and moves. And all the invisible characters are shown in such a way that you find confirmation that there is, they cannot but be.
And the slamming door in the old house hides on the other side the inexplicable infinity of the universe, of all things, and you are here with your thoughts and understanding of this and this world. The door was hiding something, but nothing was missing. Someone will not want to return, but also to remember, and someone will return, but will not dare to open the door.
In fact, the picture is very deep and looks in one breath.
Congratulations to Sophia. She's doing great. And it's great that she has such a strong team. I would like to thank everyone!
"Tales of Mom." And about women - magical and completely unmagic.
At first, I really liked the trailer: marvelous shooting of the Russian North, the cleanest calm water and the living forest. And a man with piercing blue eyes who walks through the woods looking for fairy tales.
It so happened that the film itself is like a long trailer, the whole plot thread in it, in fact, fit. And there were almost two hours of beautiful natural filming, Water, Forest and the man who walks on it and looks for fairy tales.
What is there for sure is the love of nature, she is the main character here, although in the credits they wrote only about the local resident Vasily Popov. The forest is shown in such a way that I do not remember who did better here: all the shades of blue water, autumn yellow-red foliage, smells of everything. And many, many mushrooms, exactly after the frames with which the hero begins to “cover” a little: he is circled in the dance by the mermaids splashing and stealing oars, grandmothers-connoisseurs whisper in their ear about death.
It is impossible not to notice that all fabulous energies are shown by women. The young are very beautiful and clear-eyed, and the old are colorful and some properly warty. All, like one, have an indispensable magical attribute - a painted handkerchief, which is like a map in this world, if you can solve it.
It's all about the world and the speech. Women in the real world are frozen, none of them believe in fairy tales, do not remember any legends, and Vasily with his half-childish dream to listen to the magical heritage of his ancestors laugh. “Should I tell you a story about a granny-eye?” the toothless person laughs.
They only have memories that about the war, that all the men died in it, that life was hard and hungry - what fairy tales. . .
But our hero does not rest, constantly feels the twilight world with its inhabitants, but seeing that here they are completely unnecessary to anyone, that the function of transmitting folk wisdom is lost, he decides that the old world is dead, so he locks it in a box, and the key is in dark water. And himself - in his dreams and the final frame on the boat in the starry sky floated. And the starry sky here is painted, as in Instagram is now fashionable, from this inside stylistic dissonance, well, come on. “Tales about Mother” is about the native land, about a deep connection with her, about the inability to adapt your root to the new and the other. That makes me sad.
The beauty, immensity and psychedelicity of the Russian North
Tales about the mother – a new film from the creators of “Atlantis of the Russian North”.
I had no special expectations for the film, but went to watch with interest, remembering the warmth, emotional sensitivity and love for the theme of the North in Atlantis.
In a few years of maturation and the creation of the second film, as it seemed to me, the authors’ view and comprehension have gone into even greater depth, mysticism and philosophicness, which is impossible not to catch, and which penetrates into you as soon as you linger in these parts a little longer ... and then completely begins to grow in you, filling with its fairy tales and meanings, its literally demolishing beauty and cosmicity, and with them - paradoxes that are not comprehensible.
And all this was reflected in the script and in the very breath of the film-picture, the film-meditation, the film-admiration and psychedelic immersion in the secrets of the past, still living in us. It turned out an amazing conversation of the soul - with himself, the world and God, where for every simple action of an ordinary person there is an age-old depth and mystery, where the cup of heaven is reflected in the mirror of the bottomless Kenozero waters, from where a person draws answers to his questions. Realization is limited, life is infinite.
The fairy tales of the North, dying in the villages, are preserved in the living and inconceivably beautiful nature of this untouched land. Yes, the North is fascinating ... immerses in itself - everyone who has been there and opened up to him knows this. And the film does not provide any recipes or answers - it is a reflection, a contact with Antiquity and with the Earth itself. This is only an attempt to understand, but with the understanding that knowledge is overgrown with the grass of time ... and this is its law.
And amazingly, it leaves no sorrow, no regret for the past, no pain for the present ... but a taste of depth and transparency - like water drunk from a deep well, at the bottom of which the stars reflect. The stars are in the sky and the memory of them is in us. Thank you and a low bow to the authors, for the wonderful work, and everyone who supported the project, thanks to which it became possible.
Back to the beginning. That’s what this really wonderful movie is about. It's about our deep roots. The past of our ancestors. How they lived, but more than what they were. Current people, children of megacities. I don’t think they’ve all seen a cow. And here's Northern Rus. Beautiful forests, fabulous beauty of the lake, forest and swamps on the site of ancient villages and monasteries. Who knows and loves the beautiful “village prose” of the 70-90s. Belov, Rasputin, Astafiev... They were able to reveal to our fathers the beauty of the Russian village. And they sang her a farewell song. Because the twentieth century was terrible for rural Russia. Wars and revolution, collectivization and enlargement have chopped off its power. The so-called Yeltsin reforms finished it off. But the memory remains. Ruins remain. And here's a new enchanted wanderer walking through forests and swamps, sailing on a boat, stepping where people haven't walked in years. And there's beauty around! A riot of color and life! Ropes, berries, mushrooms... And the shadows of forgotten ancestors. And forest and water spirits, leshaks and mermaids. And once destroyed shrines.
It just makes it. A wonderful mixture of documentary and almost mystical cinema. Somewhere at the junction of sleep and wake up. Come, show the ancient northern Russian Kitezh! I call you... And in response, it is either silence or affectionate glances from the forest shadow. There is a man, and there is only one forest. But all around them were villages. Old, big, rich. But in the Great Patriotic left from there hundreds of peasants to the front, but few returned. But the human wanderer remembers. He remembers the ancient local saying, and remembers ancient local tales and legends. But the fairy tales of the people are the basis of the spirit and its strength. This is the basis of the human cultural matrix. Fairy tales and the memory of ancestors. It is as if they had gone through the windows of the earth. Basis. Basis. Pivot point. You can leave the ancient house, but the memory is alive.
And there are abandoned cemeteries, on the grave crosses of which you can still read the names. And worship them. And drink clean water from the cold forest stream. And talk to the few remaining villages. There is fishing, so huts, there are grandmothers with cats.
You look at it and it's like you remember. Beautiful Russian folk dresses on ancient grandmothers and funny young women, closed windows of large huts, folk melodies and a magnificent riot of northern nature. This is the ancient and the old, the original Rus. Mother Russia... And this movie itself is a fairy tale. Fairy tale in the old, primordial sense of the word. Russian nature and Russian history are always ready to tell it to a sensitive listener. If there's someone willing to listen. It's a deeply symbolic movie. Perhaps one of the main images here is Mother Nature herself. Then - the image of a woman (girl, young woman, old woman) in the national Russian dress. There is also an ancient icon floating on the waves.
It's a wonderful movie. Awakening something in the deepest depths of the human soul.
This film is unique in that it is a meditation film that plunges you into a kind of trance state, as the main character plunges into the depths of the forest - the film - the times of his distant ancestors. Contemplation and slowness of the film, with music resembling shamanistic, will immerse the viewer throughout the session in ' the black waters of ancient knowledge' and at the end of the film ' push', leaving to reflect a sluggish, but something reminiscent of a man, so far gone in the technocratic age.
Mother Nature will tell forgotten tales about antiquity available to everyone, just a little faith and desire to plunge into the mysterious past, which, if you look closely, is not the past at all, but the present is slightly covered with autumn foliage from a idle glance.
I wonder if it is true that the film was shot in the fall not because of the all-encompassing beauty of the colors of autumn, but because of the fact that there are no mosquitoes at this time, otherwise they say that it is simply impossible to move in these parts so that you do not pump out half a liter of blood. But that's just... the domestic side of the question: -
Returning from the premiere of the film “Tales of Mother”, immediately sat down to write a review. I had no right to skip this event from the authors of Atlantis of the Russian North, a film that determined the vector of my folklore and traditional interests. But skepticism, however, did not give rest.
The film, in my opinion, was complete and expressive. If Atlantis of the Russian North is more a story about people associated with the Russian North, then Tales of Mother is a consistent immersion in its unique atmosphere. An atmosphere that can be felt, penetrated, but which cannot be conveyed by words alone. Tales of Mother is a new reflection on the Atlantis of the Russian North, immortal, inexhaustible, but hour by hour moving away from our understanding.
I recommend this film to anyone who appreciates the beauty of cinema. In “Tales of Mother”, the viewer opens up a world completely abstracted from the one that awaits him outside the doors of the cinema. To convey such a world through cinema is a real art.