Nightsiren (Svetlonoc) – Review
106 Minutes, Not Rated
Written by Barbora Namerova and Tereza Nvotova
Directed by Tereza Nvotova
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
A young woman returns to her native mountain village, searching for answers about her troubled childhood, but as she tries to uncover the truth, ancient superstitions lead the villagers to accuse her of witchcraft and murder.
Well, we’re back to European film, again. Yes, it’s subtitled, but as always, don’t let that put you off seeing the film.
Nightsiren takes place in eastern Europe, in a small village where years ago, an accident took a girl’s sister. Years later, she is summoned back to the village by a later saying she needs to handle her dead mother’s inheritance.
Upon return, old memories strike hard as she struggles to understand what happened when she was young and why no one seems willing to talk about anything having to do with her sister, or the old woman who lived next door to her family as a child.
Oh, yeah… she lived next to someone the villagers thought was a witch. Good stuff.
As secrets are slowly revealed, we get a deeper look into the lives of our cast of characters as well as the traditional values and beliefs of the area, warts and all.
As stranger and stranger things begin to happen, memories are uncovered, misdeeds are concealed, and the full gamut of strangeness unfolds before us.
It is dark and moody, with performances both good and interesting across the board. The almost-backwoods culture is interesting to try to interpret through an American lens, as well. It doesn’t always track, but that’s to be expected.
I really enjoyed Nightsiren, with the possible exception of the actual END of the film. It was a bit too… esoteric, for my tastes, but that’s what great about foreign films: you get to see things in a way you never would otherwise.
I’ll bet, and this is just a guess, mind you, that eastern European audiences got a LOT more out of this ending than I did.
But there’s a lot of great stuff in this film for me to dismiss it simply because I don’t necessarily “get” the ending.
Nightsiren will hit select theaters in the US on September 22 and stars Natalia Germani, Eva Mores, Juliana Olhova, Iva Bittova, Jana Olhova, Marek Geisberg, anda Zuzana Konecna.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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