Falling Snow - Zwischen Liebe und Verrat

Now that the Iron Curtain has collapsed and we have access to not only to modern Russia and former Soviet and Bloc countries, but we can now uncover stuff that took place in all those years without any restrictions. Historians even have access to restricted stuff as governments have made a lot of it public.

This film looks like an 80's film that imagines how things were like in the Soviet Union. There are many things about it that show a Western Cold War perspective of life in the Soviet Union, as well as politics and such. It is not well researched, if at all. The same director has a story about two women in a relationship in the apartheid era and another film about a Muslim woman who cancels her wedding because she's in love with another woman. These are her three feature films. I haven't seen the other two, but seeing how clichéd and un-researched Despite the Falling Snow is, I doubt that she spent a lot of time researching Islamic society or apartheid South Africa.

I say "director" when people expect me to say writer, but Sarif is the writer for all her films. This lack of outside input doesn't help.

So many directors spend endless hours researching life in their own country in the 90's and 80's, times when they were around. They put the time and effort to research the language, clothing, technology, etc. This film doesn't waste any time on that. "It's just in the Soviet Union, accept it. It's not accurate, move on. Just look at Ferguson. Isn't she pretty?"

If some actors are type-cast, then Samim is type-directing. Cheesy love story, history as a back drop rather than a setting, very beautiful actresses to distract from the plot. In almost every film that's what people talk about, good and bad reviews, how beautiful the actresses are.

Most people that watch films want a bit more than eye candy.

This film tells the story of three soviet spies, who smuggle secrets out to the Americans. They have a complicated love triangle, which is further complicated by one of them defecting to America.

It tells a story that spans two generations and two countries, involving love, idealism, regret, healing and many life and death decisions. The story is not strictly chronological, as it reveals bits of the story when appropriate, creating suspense and making me look forward to see how the plot will unfold. It is a story that tells how tragic societal circumstances tear lives apart, and its effects ripple across time and space. I certainly did not expect "Despite the Falling Snow" to be so gripping and so touching.

When you're cooking and you use ingredients that are 4/10 in quality/freshness, make a 4/10 recipe and put 4/10 effort to details, temperature, timing, etc, you get something that is at best 4/10. You don't need to ask the taster "How would you rate this?" because as a chef, what do you expect?

This is not a commentary on the mediocre Russian cuisine using Soviet era ingredients, but is this production company under embargo or something that they have to do with rations? Could they not have a better script?

Oh wait, the director decided to write her own script, not ask anyone for assistance, and direct everything herself. If your script is good, find a good director to make it. If you're a good director, find a good script to make into film. Very, very few people can do both. The problem is many, many people think they can.

The problem is that a weak director could ruin their own top-notch self- written script with mediocre direction. And a poor self-written script could ruin a great director's film by not getting any scrutiny or passing any filters from idea to finished film.

Let's talk positives first. The soundtrack: 10/10. This is perhaps the best score I've ever heard in my life.

Rebecca Ferguson is one of the most beautiful women to grace the screen and she's exceptionally talented, but eye-candy and great soundtrack do not a great film make.

The other actors were good for what it's worth.

The script, the story, the dialogues, the whole thing is a huge let down. I was looking forward to this film and I can't recommend it to anyone.

It's just not worth watching.

Buy the soundtrack though.

I accept that I am not among the sophisticati who live and breathe movies and contribute frequently to IMDB. But as a U.S. diplomat I served at the U.S. Embassy in communist Budapest Hungary in the Cold War 1970's. Much that was depicted in this movie ran true back then -- dilapitated decaying wall-peeling apartnents and buildings versus relatively elegant government buildings, bugging of even private apartments, etc. etc. Much was the same in Moscow too. I write rarely on IMDB and only when some movie especially intrigues me. This one did. No grotesque slasher torture-, gun- or hyper-violence here, no f-words. Rather, intelligent dialogues, gorgeous repeat gorgeous cinenatography, delicate music and I venture director's and financial backers' love for this movie's concept make this movie a true work of ART. I am glad it came to be nade.

This movie has a lush, romanticized wartime feel. But I wish that it hadn't started in present day though, because in doing so, it diminished some of the intensity and intrigue around the past story.