There is a certain sense of strangeness throughout the film, a certain touch of fantasy that reminds us especially of Jonathan Glazer. Not many things are explained about the main character, and especially in the final section the magical elements end up absorbing the traditional narrative, but the film as a whole has a touch of fantastic cinema, of universality in its proposal, which makes it the most affordable than Malgorzata Szumowska has made to date.
14 Reviews
A very good film
latinfineart8 September 2021
I really found this to be a magical movie. It had a very mysterious and lyrical quality to it, and it was full of surprises. Wonderful characters, beautiful dialogue and a tad of a magical realist quality. And a peek into affluent Polish life.
A wonderful performance by Alec Utgoff, who really stole the show. I really liked this movie.
A wonderful performance by Alec Utgoff, who really stole the show. I really liked this movie.
Style over substance
johnpmoseley6 April 2022
Carrying a massage table and wandering out of mysterious woods, our hero, Zhenia, enters a Polish government building, meets an official in a wood-panelled office, renders him unconscious with a massage/hypnosis and signs his own residence permit. The official has a record player in the office and, as Zhenia leaves, the needle drops of its own accord and music starts.
We are surely in the presence of some magical being, here to do great and/or terrible things, right? Well, not really. All he does is become the house masseur for a gated community of McMansions with unusually tasteful interiors. He seems to be good at his job, even very good, but the only time he does actual magic is back at his drab, tower-block bedsit, and all it is is moving a glass across the table with his mind.
The trick is surely a reference to Tarkovsky's Stalker, in which the stalker's child does the same, and perhaps the point is that Chernobyl, where Zhenia grew up, is an awful real-life version of that earlier film's Zone - an area that looks like ordinary countryside, but is under some kind of mysterious, likely sinister enchantment.
It's all very intriguing, the cast of characters is comically and vividly drawn, both in terms of writing and acting, and visually it's a masterclass, every frame an absolute beaut.
But what's it all for? There's a touch, as another reviewer notes, of Pasolini's Teorema, and of the classic old short story The Distributor. But where those are about the interloper in a community determinedly bringing ruin, Zhenia, by comparison, and the film's writers, seem to lack any clear sense of purpose.
The only point seems to be a letdown: Zhenia, unable to save his mother, who appears to have died of cancer after Chernobyl, realises - particularly when one of his clients also dies of cancer - that he's not going to be able to save anyone here either. But it's not like he tried all that hard and why, anyway, did he make his focus this little enclave of privilege in Poland of all places? Sorry, but if the aim is to say something about the horror and tragedy of an event like Chernobyl, this in no way cuts it.
Maybe the point is more to say that, in the face of the world's traumas, and of serious illnesses like cancer, our modern social-media-driven culture of wellness treatments and candy-coated minimalist interiors is, well, a tad pathetic, precious and, at worst, prone to magical thinking. And, if so, well, OK, but the argument seems obvious to the point of being trite, and the consequences of the wrongheadedness don't hit home hard enough to seem to matter much.
I'm thinking it wasn't all completely thought through, and the result is, for all the brilliant detail, this thing drags terribly as it goes on.
You realise seeing stuff like this the greatness of directors like Kubrick, Lynch, Tarkovsky and Fellini, able to do the stunning visuals, but also marry them with a brilliant story. Elsewhere in the lesser reaches of the arthouse universe, the more common reality is as here: a ton of promise, but ultimate disappointment.
We are surely in the presence of some magical being, here to do great and/or terrible things, right? Well, not really. All he does is become the house masseur for a gated community of McMansions with unusually tasteful interiors. He seems to be good at his job, even very good, but the only time he does actual magic is back at his drab, tower-block bedsit, and all it is is moving a glass across the table with his mind.
The trick is surely a reference to Tarkovsky's Stalker, in which the stalker's child does the same, and perhaps the point is that Chernobyl, where Zhenia grew up, is an awful real-life version of that earlier film's Zone - an area that looks like ordinary countryside, but is under some kind of mysterious, likely sinister enchantment.
It's all very intriguing, the cast of characters is comically and vividly drawn, both in terms of writing and acting, and visually it's a masterclass, every frame an absolute beaut.
But what's it all for? There's a touch, as another reviewer notes, of Pasolini's Teorema, and of the classic old short story The Distributor. But where those are about the interloper in a community determinedly bringing ruin, Zhenia, by comparison, and the film's writers, seem to lack any clear sense of purpose.
The only point seems to be a letdown: Zhenia, unable to save his mother, who appears to have died of cancer after Chernobyl, realises - particularly when one of his clients also dies of cancer - that he's not going to be able to save anyone here either. But it's not like he tried all that hard and why, anyway, did he make his focus this little enclave of privilege in Poland of all places? Sorry, but if the aim is to say something about the horror and tragedy of an event like Chernobyl, this in no way cuts it.
Maybe the point is more to say that, in the face of the world's traumas, and of serious illnesses like cancer, our modern social-media-driven culture of wellness treatments and candy-coated minimalist interiors is, well, a tad pathetic, precious and, at worst, prone to magical thinking. And, if so, well, OK, but the argument seems obvious to the point of being trite, and the consequences of the wrongheadedness don't hit home hard enough to seem to matter much.
I'm thinking it wasn't all completely thought through, and the result is, for all the brilliant detail, this thing drags terribly as it goes on.
You realise seeing stuff like this the greatness of directors like Kubrick, Lynch, Tarkovsky and Fellini, able to do the stunning visuals, but also marry them with a brilliant story. Elsewhere in the lesser reaches of the arthouse universe, the more common reality is as here: a ton of promise, but ultimate disappointment.
Music question please
howiechap16 October 2021
So what is Poland's future?
lee_eisenberg5 December 2022
Poland's submission to the 93 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film focuses on a Ukrainian masseur working in an affluent area who gains a cult following. Malgorzata Szumowska's "Sniegu juz nigdy nie bedzie" ("Never Gonna Snow Again" in English) addresses the issues of class, the status of guest workers, and the environment (with people concerned that global warming will end frozen precipitation). Usually this is the sort of movie that I would expect to come from the US, Canada or western Europe - I understand that a number of Poles work in the UK - but it appears that even Poland brings in foreigners to do the work that the locals don't want to do; indeed, they mention Pakistanis working in the country.
I don't know that I would call it a great movie, but still worth seeing. A mystifying look at class issues in the former Eastern Bloc, and another movie calling attention to the biggest threat that civilization has ever faced.
I don't know that I would call it a great movie, but still worth seeing. A mystifying look at class issues in the former Eastern Bloc, and another movie calling attention to the biggest threat that civilization has ever faced.
Mysterious on the content
sudhakaranakhilan13 February 2021
: It is the swindling back of Zenai at the totality because he is unknown and mysterious to the person's whom he is in affection with. Zenia is moving forward with his profession and moving backward with his own internal conflicts about his mother. He is some kind of a relief remedy for the women who are undergone massage. To be exact, Zenia is masseur with innate power and magical qualities. He is some kind of a supernatural being. A calm, quiet and pleasant man who interfere in the personal matters of the people whom he massage. Woods and the darky atmosphere of the woods plays a symbolic element throughout the film. I felt like watching Kuttysrank or Kadhapurushan (both are Malayalam films) while going through Never gonna snow again. A nice, subtle piece of art.
A lovely piece of magic relaism from Poland.
MOscarbradley3 March 2022
Zhenia, (Alec Utgoff), is a kind of itinerant masseur who's also something of a shamen. He was born in Chernobyl seven years to the day before the accident and as a client suggests he may be radioactive. He's now plying his trade around a fancy gated estate in Poland, the kind of place where the Stepford Wives might live. There's no backstory to Zhenia other than he can hypnotise people and momentarily take over their lives, (that's how he seems to have got his work permit), and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert's wonderful film "Never Gonna Snow Again" could be a Polish 'Wizard of Oz' before Dorothy came on the scene as Zhenia makes himself at home in other people's houses, bending them to his will while simultaneously becoming a little like them for a time.
'Realism' in the conventional sense is conspicuously absent. I mean, how did Zhenia get in touch with these clients, all living within walking distance of each other in this strangely bland community? What's his purpose there and who exactly is he and why can he move a glass across a table without touching it? Teasingly these are questions Szumowska and Englert want us to ask without giving us any answers.
Naturally, it's a comedy and a rather black one though it's never particularly funny. Whimsical would be a better term. It might even remind you a little of Pasolini's "Theorem" and visually it's often quite extraordinary. That it slipped by, virtually unnoticed, even in the art-house circuit, is a shame since it is totally engaging from start to finish. Do try to see it.
'Realism' in the conventional sense is conspicuously absent. I mean, how did Zhenia get in touch with these clients, all living within walking distance of each other in this strangely bland community? What's his purpose there and who exactly is he and why can he move a glass across a table without touching it? Teasingly these are questions Szumowska and Englert want us to ask without giving us any answers.
Naturally, it's a comedy and a rather black one though it's never particularly funny. Whimsical would be a better term. It might even remind you a little of Pasolini's "Theorem" and visually it's often quite extraordinary. That it slipped by, virtually unnoticed, even in the art-house circuit, is a shame since it is totally engaging from start to finish. Do try to see it.
No story, pretentious mess
arthurdaleystrilby26 October 2021
Cinematography masterpiece
MichielLos23 October 2021
An atmospheric and strangely moving film made with wit and style.
smithnigel-4485231 October 2021
I saw this film in my local cinema during a limited UK theatrical release, and immediately ordered a copy of the Polish import DVD so that I could see it again.
It is a very hypnotic piece of work in which the lead character, a travelling massage therapist called Zhenia (Utgoff), visits the houses of residents in a reasonably well-to-do, gated community - all seemingly dysfunctional people living detatched lives in near-identical detached houses.
Zhenia quietly dispenses therapy and a listening ear, along with occasional hypnosis to supplement the treatment. While his clients experience hypnotic dreams, he enjoys the stillness in their homes and tries to understand what makes them all tick, whilst just about managing to avoid getting too emotionally involved. He too searces his own memories, especially of his mother, who died as a result of radiation exposure in his home town of Pripyat due to the nearby Chernobyl disaster. He remembers the clouds of radioactive debris, which his childhood memories render in his dreams like snow.
But something isn't right, and in the background Zhenia is being stalked by officials, who are aware that his work permit is forged - something we see him achieve in the opening scenes of the film. He finally brings a suitably mystical conclusion to his story with the help of a favour he does for one of his former clients.
Utgoff gives a hypnotic performance, bringing an other-worldly feel to the character, and the supporting cast all create fascinating, rounded characters that inhabit the strange community he works in. The cinematography is excellent, with a chilly, desaturated palette that enhances the unsettling atmosphere of the narrative.
The film has mostly Polish and Russian dialogue, with very clear, subtitles in English in both the UK theatrical release and on the Polish issue DVD.
This is one for film lovers who (like me) enjoy a story that takes its time in the telling, and it will leave you pinching yourself at the end to check that you've not been dreaming.
It is a very hypnotic piece of work in which the lead character, a travelling massage therapist called Zhenia (Utgoff), visits the houses of residents in a reasonably well-to-do, gated community - all seemingly dysfunctional people living detatched lives in near-identical detached houses.
Zhenia quietly dispenses therapy and a listening ear, along with occasional hypnosis to supplement the treatment. While his clients experience hypnotic dreams, he enjoys the stillness in their homes and tries to understand what makes them all tick, whilst just about managing to avoid getting too emotionally involved. He too searces his own memories, especially of his mother, who died as a result of radiation exposure in his home town of Pripyat due to the nearby Chernobyl disaster. He remembers the clouds of radioactive debris, which his childhood memories render in his dreams like snow.
But something isn't right, and in the background Zhenia is being stalked by officials, who are aware that his work permit is forged - something we see him achieve in the opening scenes of the film. He finally brings a suitably mystical conclusion to his story with the help of a favour he does for one of his former clients.
Utgoff gives a hypnotic performance, bringing an other-worldly feel to the character, and the supporting cast all create fascinating, rounded characters that inhabit the strange community he works in. The cinematography is excellent, with a chilly, desaturated palette that enhances the unsettling atmosphere of the narrative.
The film has mostly Polish and Russian dialogue, with very clear, subtitles in English in both the UK theatrical release and on the Polish issue DVD.
This is one for film lovers who (like me) enjoy a story that takes its time in the telling, and it will leave you pinching yourself at the end to check that you've not been dreaming.
Intriguing and dream-like
wlodi10 March 2022
A fascinating collection of quirky people, intriguing stories, social commentary and a mystery surrounding the masseur and spiritual healer Zenia (Alec Utgoff) who seems to have some special powers after surviving the Chernobyl disaster as a child. The central mystery keeps you intrigued, while the film explores the stories of the wealthy fenced-off neighbourhood (a very good Polish cast). I really liked the fairy-tale feeling of the film and the masterfully done dream-like hypnosis scenes (which looked amazing). The film doesn't feel larger than the sum of it parts though - the individual various elements work very well but in the end you don't necessarily get a satisfying pay-off to it all, it just drifts off like a dream. A worth effort from the Polish cinema.
Modern fairytale
Maremartea5 January 2021
Extraordinary and Magical Powers
Blue-Grotto10 April 2022
In a moon-lit forest on the Polish border with Ukraine there is a lone figure finding his way. His name is Zenia and there is a mysterious power in his gaze and touch.
I take away your misery, suffering and sickness.
Like a black stream it flows from your feet.
Zenia enters a gated community on the outskirts of Warsaw where he finds work as a massage therapist. Word spreads that Zenia has a gift for healing. His clients find themselves in a forest illuminated by radiant light, moved by a gentle breeze, and their problems, stresses, and anxieties slipping away. Yet late at night there are knocks on Zenia's door and dark secrets from his past threaten to surface.
Never Gonna Snow Again is a beautiful, sharp, and observant film that toys with expectations of what a film should be. Like Zenia, it achieves something indistinct and magical. It is an amalgamation of different genres including fable, drama, dark comedy, and even superhero. It combines such diverse subjects as radiation, immigration, family, climate change, fate, massage, Santa Claus, and more. At its heart there is a damaged and vulnerable boy with extraordinary and unusual powers to do good in the world. These are powers that any of us can grasp. I felt uplifted, happier, and more capable to pursue my dreams, as in the peaceful, magical, and serene snowfall.
I take away your misery, suffering and sickness.
Like a black stream it flows from your feet.
Zenia enters a gated community on the outskirts of Warsaw where he finds work as a massage therapist. Word spreads that Zenia has a gift for healing. His clients find themselves in a forest illuminated by radiant light, moved by a gentle breeze, and their problems, stresses, and anxieties slipping away. Yet late at night there are knocks on Zenia's door and dark secrets from his past threaten to surface.
Never Gonna Snow Again is a beautiful, sharp, and observant film that toys with expectations of what a film should be. Like Zenia, it achieves something indistinct and magical. It is an amalgamation of different genres including fable, drama, dark comedy, and even superhero. It combines such diverse subjects as radiation, immigration, family, climate change, fate, massage, Santa Claus, and more. At its heart there is a damaged and vulnerable boy with extraordinary and unusual powers to do good in the world. These are powers that any of us can grasp. I felt uplifted, happier, and more capable to pursue my dreams, as in the peaceful, magical, and serene snowfall.
Nitzschean self-deception in Malgorzata
figueroafernando7 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Malgorzata and the self-deception foreseen by Nietzsche. Married by a contradictory rhythm of their lives, at breakneck and addictive speed, but at the same time with a heavy, even sclerotic, flow of their human, social, marital, family nature..., Zhenia's clients, ecstatic in a march unstoppable in their routines, their customs, allow the viewer, us who follow the masseur of the town near Chernobyl in the work, to witness the spiritual poverty in them, no matter how much they do yoga and tai chi, and stop smoke, or have children as true scholars in chemistry, or piano, but accuse their mother of being a w_-_--e and even those Olympiad champions have time to make homemade drugs and sell them to the neighbor. Nietzsche says in Beyond Good and Evil, in section VII, that the human being has that convenient will or disposition to look the other way when facing the obvious, to ignore, "a kind of state of defense against many of the things... a contentment with darkness". I agree with Miguel A. Reina, Malgorzata's voice in this work has echoes of Jonathan Glazer, only that the pessimism of the director of Cialo aka "Body" is finer, more subtle, his modesty is transparent and we can almost see that Malgorzata did not want what we are actually seeing to be seen: the self-deception of his characters and as a resource to soften, hide his criticism, he slips the fantastic scenes where the glasses are moved as telekinesis or the patients are put to sleep put in a trance with a Zhenia snapping her fingers while indulging in a fouetté en tournant, to camouflage these paranormal events with folklore and the popular dictum that those who survived Chernobyl would be loaded with radioactivity. For example, after the sad scene where, by hypnotizing her client, she seems to have also led her to a real regression, Zhenia sits solemnly at the piano and plays Chopin's insufferable Prelude e-moll opus 28 number 4, as if she also sensed that It will never snow again. Fortunately, and despite the director reserving the location of Zhenia, the snow will return. Fascinating work.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
