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| A Kratt goes to work in Rainer Sarnet's November (2017) |
In many ways, Rainer Sarnet's
November (2017) epitomizes the very best that the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival has to offer: unique and relatively unknown films from far flung countries, sumptuous visuals, and a haunting score that transports you into to a strange, mysterious world.
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| Hans loves the serene and clean young baroness |
November's narrative is relatively simple. In the magical Estonian countryside, a young rural woman named Liina loves a scruffy young man named Hans, who loves a sleepwalking young baroness way beyond his reach--a sad case of loving the wrong person who does not love you in return. Since these are the only young people in the vicinity, pickings are slim, and emotions ride high. The pursuit of these love affairs leads to tragedy. This tale has been told time and time again, but certainly not quite in the same way.
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| Llina's dead mother lurks under a willow tree |
In
November's dark woods, ghosts dressed all in white walk in processions and demand dinner, human-sized chickens hang out in saunas, lovelorn women turn into werewolves, collections of tools are animated through stolen souls, villagers use spit to form bullets, and witches cast spells and create potions.
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| A couple of men seem to have bartered their souls |
The film's mystical, ghostly visuals feel like a cross between Guy
Madden and Michael Haeneke, and the tone is equally somber as the poor
live in grimy poverty, all the while resenting (and desiring) the German
interlopers that occupy the manor.
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| Liina is willing to do what it takes to capture her true love's heart |
The standout performance in the mix is Rea Lest's poignant turn as Liina, a young woman who dreams of a better, richer life and makes the most of her limited choices. In a culture defined by a barter economy that resorts to stealing and theft, Liina struggles against her father's avaricious use of her virginity as a bargaining chip, fighting desperately to pursue her own desires. Meanwhile, her object of desire, the dim-witted Hans (Jorgen Liik), feverishly chases after a young German baroness who considers the locals filthy and sinful. His desires are far less interesting and much more simply defined, making him a less than substantial suitor for the glorious Liina.
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| Liina's feral alter ego allows her to revel in more primitive desires |
Alas, the fate of the fairytale is almost inevitably to police female desire and forcefeed us what's appropriate behavior. Unlike feminist critiques of fairy tales such as
The Love Witch, and
The Lure,
November's critical edge is not as clear. I contend that Liina's relationship to werewolf lore hearkens back to Angela Carter's fairytale subversions in
The Company of Wolves, although less overt or liberatory. Still, the film's ability to transport us to a place hauntingly uncanny makes it truly remarkable. The film won an award for its hallucinatory imagery at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it made its North American premiere, and I feel really fortunate to have seen it on a big screen with fellow cinephiles at Fantasia. I highly recommend it.
