Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari
Written by Denis Osokin
Directed by Alexey Fedorchenko
Russia, 2012
Alexey Fedorchenko’s last film, Silent Souls, explored the funeral rites of the Merya people, following two men as they journeyed to cremate a spouse on the banks of the Oka River. They carried out strange rituals, such as tying coloured threads into the dead woman’s pubic hair, but it was presented with an honest naturalism and rooted in spiritual truth. The result was a profound and moving piece of cinema, depicting the sombre passing of an ancient way of life.
With Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Fedorchenko returns to the subject of custom and tradition, this time looking at the fertility lore of the women of the Meadow Mari, a pagan culture located on the left bank of the Volga River. Thrust directly into their singular world, without any narrative grounding, we...
Written by Denis Osokin
Directed by Alexey Fedorchenko
Russia, 2012
Alexey Fedorchenko’s last film, Silent Souls, explored the funeral rites of the Merya people, following two men as they journeyed to cremate a spouse on the banks of the Oka River. They carried out strange rituals, such as tying coloured threads into the dead woman’s pubic hair, but it was presented with an honest naturalism and rooted in spiritual truth. The result was a profound and moving piece of cinema, depicting the sombre passing of an ancient way of life.
With Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Fedorchenko returns to the subject of custom and tradition, this time looking at the fertility lore of the women of the Meadow Mari, a pagan culture located on the left bank of the Volga River. Thrust directly into their singular world, without any narrative grounding, we...
- 6/27/2013
- by Rob Dickie
- SoundOnSight
★★★☆☆ Confounding audiences and critics alike at the Rome Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival and now the 67th Edinburgh Film Festival, Silent Souls director Aleksei Fedorchenko's beguiling and perplexing expedition into the myths and rituals of the Russian Mari - Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari (Nebesnye zheny lugovykh mari, 2012). Set against the scenic backdrop of the country's vast snow-capped Urals, Celestial Wives is a collection of 23 cinematic vignettes about Mari women - the Mari being a distinct group from the eastern Volga region, purported to be the last remaining practising pagans in Europe.
Fedorchenko takes us on a fractured journey through this mysterious land, culminating in an almost episodic tour of the peculiar customs of almost two-dozen women living within the same rural village, each with their own unique and (often) baffling mannerisms. Celebrating both the traditions of the Mari people and the empowerment of women, Celestial Wives' unstructured...
Fedorchenko takes us on a fractured journey through this mysterious land, culminating in an almost episodic tour of the peculiar customs of almost two-dozen women living within the same rural village, each with their own unique and (often) baffling mannerisms. Celebrating both the traditions of the Mari people and the empowerment of women, Celestial Wives' unstructured...
- 6/25/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
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