Hitting the 14th year of having creating my IMDb account on the 27th of May,I decided to celebrate by watching one of the films fellow IMDber melvelvit-1 has very kindly sent me.Being in a Horror mood, the outline sounded so intriguing that I got set to witness the witch rising from the mud.
View on the film:
Taking a traditional Horror set-up of a supernatural being possibly coming back from the dead to terrify the locals who killed them centuries ago, co-writer/(with Kaarlo Nuorvala) director Roland af Hällström twists this into a quirky, humorous tone,where instead of being horrified, the locals largely open their arms to the suspected witch, with some soon developing romantic feelings. Although the ending "message" (high lighting the still visible scars of WWII) is delivered too bluntly by a character looking down the camera, the writers make up for it in their adaptation of this 1945 play, (which explored themes of scapegoats and persecutions ) by keeping the rest of the dialogue flowing with curiosity,not only of the alleged witch, but by the battle of the sexes horror bubbling underneath the surface, as the women in the town become weighed down by a suspicious mind-set,and all the men become transfixed by this mysterious woman.
Passing away at just 44 in 1974 after a short illness, Mirja Mane gives an utterly mesmerising turn as Birgit Suomaa/ "The Witch." Playing on the ambiguity and spending most of her screen time naked, Sumomaa unwinds experimental dance moves giving Suomaa a supernatural appearance, neatly balanced by Mane holding Suomaa in a wide-eyed enticing state when welcomed to the home of the locals. Set against the mountains of Finland, director Hallstrom & cinematographer Esko Töyri brew an imposing, off-beat Gothic atmosphere of elegant shots following each man falling under her "spell" in their homes, which rise up to hauntingly stark wide-shots of the muddy wildness from which has emerged a bewitching figure.
View on the film:
Taking a traditional Horror set-up of a supernatural being possibly coming back from the dead to terrify the locals who killed them centuries ago, co-writer/(with Kaarlo Nuorvala) director Roland af Hällström twists this into a quirky, humorous tone,where instead of being horrified, the locals largely open their arms to the suspected witch, with some soon developing romantic feelings. Although the ending "message" (high lighting the still visible scars of WWII) is delivered too bluntly by a character looking down the camera, the writers make up for it in their adaptation of this 1945 play, (which explored themes of scapegoats and persecutions ) by keeping the rest of the dialogue flowing with curiosity,not only of the alleged witch, but by the battle of the sexes horror bubbling underneath the surface, as the women in the town become weighed down by a suspicious mind-set,and all the men become transfixed by this mysterious woman.
Passing away at just 44 in 1974 after a short illness, Mirja Mane gives an utterly mesmerising turn as Birgit Suomaa/ "The Witch." Playing on the ambiguity and spending most of her screen time naked, Sumomaa unwinds experimental dance moves giving Suomaa a supernatural appearance, neatly balanced by Mane holding Suomaa in a wide-eyed enticing state when welcomed to the home of the locals. Set against the mountains of Finland, director Hallstrom & cinematographer Esko Töyri brew an imposing, off-beat Gothic atmosphere of elegant shots following each man falling under her "spell" in their homes, which rise up to hauntingly stark wide-shots of the muddy wildness from which has emerged a bewitching figure.