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 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.