AllMovie

This gentle, understated outing - a rare narrative turn by Russian documentarist Marina Razbezhkina - transports viewers to rural Russia at the turn of the 20th century. Despite living in a world graced by some technology and industry, the women at the heart of this tale ascribe to the most ancient and arcane of rituals, and adhere to pagan superstitions far removed from anything contemporary. At the center of their belief system lies a conviction that every life in this community is linked to the local hollow, and that anyone who breaks the spiritual bond with the hollow will die an untimely death. To his credit, the young Karev, the son of one of the village women, has successfully broken away from these traditions but finds himself torn. He wants, on the one hand, to cling to his identity as a villager, and yet knows, on the other, that urban civilization is now an ingrained part of him as well. Some of the younger and more desirable women in the community feel attracted to him but believe that if they get too close they will certainly die. Writer-director Razbezhkina adapted her script from the prose of poet Sergey Yesenin, whose sense of identity suffered from a cognitive dissonance similar to that of Karev.