This was a film that I originally tried to watch a few months ago, realizing that it didn't have English subtitles for the text screens. It was then that I saw another review saying how they watched this with an app on their phone to translate them. I tried that and it worked so I decided to check this out for a featured review on Journey with a Cinephile, making it a member of the Centennial Club.
Synopsis: Lithuania, first half of the 19th century. While hunting on the outskirts of the ancient castle of Count Mikhail Shemet (Konstantin Eggert), a bear attacks the countess. She loses her mind, and her son Kazimir (Eggert), acquires her pathology.
We start this with what is in the synopsis. Mikhail is the local count who is married to Adelina (Aleksandra Kartseva). She is fond of her younger cousin, Olgred Keystut (Yuri Zavadsky). This upsets her husband. While they're hunting, Olgred goes off and is knocked out. A bear then comes upon his body. Adelina finds them, her horse gets spooked and she's knocked unconscious. She's taken home and given care. While she is out, her husband attacks her. She wakes up during this, screaming about the bear.
This then shifts into the future. Mikhail has passed away so his son, Kazimir, is now the count. His mother has descended into madness, now portrayed by Varvara Alyokhina. Their castle has fallen into disrepair as well.
Kazimir is slated to marry Yulka (Vera Malinovskaya). Her older sister is Panna Mariya Ivinskaya (Natalya Rozenel) who is quite pious. She's also seeing Yan Bredis (Boris Afonin) who is a local doctor. He's concerned with Kazimir's mental state. He doesn't think it is a good idea that he marries Yulka, fearing for her life.
Now something I'll include here is that living in this forest is supposed to be these spirits referred to as Lokis. I'm come to learn that this is a Balkan term for bear. One of them attacks Tuska (Olga Lenskaya), who is a local logger's daughter. The identity isn't found as they got away. They did find this moss that is referred to as Loki's beard.
Bredis and the local pastor, Vittenbakh (Aleksandr Geirot) seek out Kazimir. The former warns him that it isn't a good idea to marry Yulka. He sees what they say and agrees to break it off. When he goes to do it though, he is torn. There is a moment where he breaks, maybe showing signs of having this affliction that his mother does. There are concerns that he might not be the son of the count as well.
That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Something that I'll go ahead with and preface here is that this film only runs 67 minutes long. It was almost double that to watch this with using my phone to translate because I had to continue to pause it, giving the app time to do what it needed to. That did hurt the pacing a bit. That's also not to say that I hated this as I was quite intrigued.
Now that I have that out of the way, this is an interesting story that we're getting here. This is a period piece. When I start to watch this and saw that this is supposed to be taking place in Lithuania, that made me pause. It wasn't until I thought about it that the country would have been part of the Soviet Union at the time that this was made. That is also the country of origin for the film as well. It also seems that this is based on folklore. There is a novella that is from called 'Lokis' that was written by Prosper Mérimée. Oddly enough, I've seen one of his novels adapted back in November in 'The Venus of Ille'. This film is also from a play that was adapted from the novella.
Where I'll go from there is by saying that we have things going on under the surface that are interesting. We get the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies. There are rumors that Mikhail isn't the father of Kazimir. My guess is that Olgred is since Adelina was fond of him. The idea that due to her being attacked by this bear, that Mikhail is also cursed. They think he's doomed to descend into madness like Adelina. That is Kazimir's fear so he does listen, even if for a short time, to Bredis. There could be mental illness running in the family. Adelina has gone crazy by the time we see her son as an adult. Maybe Kazimir isn't as well. That is where the self-fulfilling prophecy comes into play. There are other possible explanations.
That is where I'll then go. When we jump to Kazimir being an adult, they state that the castle has fallen into disrepair. You can use this as an allegory for his mother's sanity and as well as his deteriorating. If this place is falling apart, then maybe something is being released causing his madness. Another route to go here is that due to this bear attack, maybe Mikhail is cursed. There is also the folklore angle where the Lokis have tainted his mind. I could have misread this, but I do think that he's the one who attacks Tuska earlier in the work while in the woods.
Something interesting that I also connected to this. There is a royal family somewhere in Europe that due to continued inbreeding has caused this line to develop an extremely rare blood disorder. It made me wonder if that is something that is being used here. Now 1925 is a bit early to fully know about something like this. There is a correlation though to Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Fall of the House of Usher'. That is seeing a family descend into madness as their home falls apart as well.
I'll then shift this over to discuss filmmaking. This uses elements of gothic horror that I enjoyed. We get that by setting it in this castle that is dark and gloomy. There are also elements of love and tragedy along with unable to beat fate. These are classic themes in this sub-genre. The cinematography and framing were fine for this era of filmmaking. They were limited by technology. There aren't much in the way of effects. What was impressive though was the make-up. They were able to make Mikhail and Kazimir look like two different actors. Alyokhina as the older, crazy Adelina looked good along with a Romani woman we see. Also, I thought here was a real bear. I'm now seeing that Nikolay Trofimov was credited there so I need to give accolades. What truly impressed me was the musical selections and the sound effects synced with the version I saw. I'm not sure if that was originally intended, but it helped my viewing for sure.
All that is left then is acting performances. I thought that Eggert was good as both Mikhail and the son, Kazimir. The former is just brooding, thinking his wife is having an affair. He shows solid range for the latter. His mental state is in question which worked. Kartseva and Zavadsky set the stage well for the prologue. Afonin, Malinovskaya, Geirot and the rest of the cast were good to push Kazimir where things ended up for the story as well. It is over the top, but it had to be for silent films so there isn't a big issue there.
In conclusion, this film has more going on than you'd expect for a work made this early into cinema. There is more subtext that I read online about this potentially being subversive toward aristocracy. What we do get on the screen is interesting with self-fulfilling prophecies and descending into madness. Is there a curse or is this in the head of Kazimir? The acting is good for the era. This is also well-made with the cinematography, framing and editing working in its favor. The version I watched soundtrack was also good so that enhanced my viewing. Not one I can recommend to everyone but if you want to see the history of horror cinema or early Soviet filmmaking, I'd recommend this one as a deeper dive.
My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.
