AllMovie

In a poetic evocation of a land that produced creative talents like those of Marc Chagall, Lithuanian-born director Tadeusz Konwicki looks at his native country through a story based on a novel by fellow Lithuanian Czeslaw Milosz. The main protagonist -- aside from the haunting landscape and forests -- is young Tommy (Maciej Mazurkiewicz) who observes his valley beginning to deteriorate as social unrest grows in the 1920s. Tommy's fantasy life brings him in touch with "evil" forces and a doomed love affair, but the reality is that he lives on a wealthy estate near the Polish border and even though the war has ended, animosity has not. As dissention and antagonism grow, the shadows of a future war are already growing darker in the once-innocent valley.