Nov (2017)

Directed by: Rainer Sarnet | 115 minutes | drama, fantasy | Actors: Rea Lest, Jörgen Liik, Arvo Kukumägi, Katarlina Unt, Taavi Eelmaa, Heino Kalm, Meelis Rämmeld, Dieter Laser, Jette Loona Hermanis, Jaan Tooming, Klara Eighorn, Ene Pappel, Ernst Lillemets, Sepa Tom, Tiina Keeman

A creature made of tools and a cow skull moves purposefully to a stable where he comes face to face with a frightened calf. The sharp farming tools of which this curious creature is made bodes little well, but fortunately it is not too bad, the calf is wrapped in chains and dragged outside where they fly away. This ensouled being is a “kratt”, it works and steals for a master. That master had to sell his soul to the Devil for this service, a large, wild bearded fellow in a fur coat at a crossroads in the woods.

In ‘November’ (2017) this is all normal; In a nineteenth-century Estonian village, the residents are busy all day with supernatural powers that control and threaten their miserable lives. For example, on a special day, their deceased relatives dressed in immaculate white come to visit for a bite to eat. No one is surprised, not even when the Plague appears in the form of a young woman, then in the form of a mischievous goat, and finally as a pig swearing on the Bible with its leg. The way to avert the Plague? Wear your clothes upside down and lie motionless on the floor, and the goat doesn’t get it at all. The whole village joins in, and when the danger has passed, the villagers unleash a massive hugging session.

‘November’ shows humanity at its ugliest, almost everyone looks filthy, looks disfigured (crooked nose, protruding teeth, exaggerated foreheads, thick wrinkles, et cetera), lusts with envy, and lies and steals compulsively. Director Rainer Sarnet depicts the ups and downs of this poor bunch of humanity in playful black and white; sometimes Sarnet opts for harsh contrasts with a lot of muddy black, and other times for an overexposed, almost faded image; sometimes ‘November’ seems like a nightmare and sometimes a fairy tale. Sarnet enhances this fairytale atmosphere by occasionally using the infrared light of nature’s greenery. The effect is that everything that is normally green, such as the leaves of the trees, suddenly turns heavenly white (instead of gray). In another scene, when the corners of the image have been bleached out, Sarnet tries to make us feel like we’re looking at an old photo with a soft white frame.

The result is surprising, comical, morbid, sometimes stunningly artistic, but also often flat. That ‘November’ is an adaptation of a novel (‘Rehepapp’) can be seen in the large number of characters and storylines, which do not always come into their own within the more than one and a half hours of ‘November’. The elaboration of the common thread that should keep everything together —girl wants boy, but boy is in love with someone else- can be called cliché at best. However director Rainer Sarnet tries his best and pulls out a lot visually, ‘November’ lacks the right touch of magic.