Saturday, March 08, 2014

Santra ja puhuvat puut / Santra and the Talking Trees

Tampere Film Festival. National Competition 11 X-rated
SANTRA JA PUHUVAT PUUT
SANTRA AND THE TALKING TREES

Finland 2013
Documentary | 28 min

Director: Miia Tervo
    
Nuori nainen pölähtää maailman ääristä karjalaiseen idylliin ja kohtaa Santran – vanhan naisen, joka on viimeinen linkki naisen ja karjalaisen kulttuurin juuriin. Elokuva kertoo kodin löytämisen vaikeudesta ja kauneudesta.
    
Fate brings a young woman to idyllic Karelia in Russia, near the Finnish border, where she meets Santra, an old woman who’s the last link to the Karelian culture of her ancestors. This film is about the difficulty and beauty of finding a home
.

AA: A first person narrative of a young woman. Scope. "I am from nowhere". Object animation inserts. Fast edits. We are from a country where they always sing. It was so beautiful in Karelia. She laughs and cries at the same time. The Karelia visitors smuggle Karelian soil. Restlessness finds its expression in travel. "Actually I lived in the wind." I also wanted to escape in time, to the past. First I found Markku, and the biggest birch in Finland. Then Markku took me to Santra. I had such a longing to the sacred and the simple. Santra is the last seer and singer of ancient songs. Even on the back seat of a car she sings, and Markku records it all. Among the inserts there are liberal helpings of  footage from Häidenvietto Karjalan runomailla. Sauna spells. "Myöhäistä on silloin kun tuonen tuvill' ollaan" / "It's too late when we are knocking at the doors of Death". Time-lapse footage of a Karelian pie being made. The knife to the sheath. Love found me. Baby footage. Tradition is a form of love. The love will run over graves and never die. Featuring Santra Remsuyeva, who died at her home in Vuokkiniemi at 96.

Miia Tervo has a distinctive voice as a film-maker. I liked Lumikko, and this one is another distinguished piece.

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