SYNOPSIS

One of the most inventive, magical, and also

exceedingly funny films of recent international cinema, November
remaining wholly and deliriously original. It’s unlike anything else
you’ve ever seen. Based on a best selling Estonian Novel from
2000 by Andrus Kivirahk Rehepapp ehk November, November is a
beguiling delight that has to be seen to be believed.

Summing up November is like waking from a fever dream and trying

to write down everything that happened. Almost by putting any
words down on paper makes November seem less special.

However, this wouldn’t be a review without trying to sum it up, so

here goes.

Young Liina and Hans are two young peasants who live in a run
down village in the woods with their families and other village folk.
Liina is besotted with Hans but when becomes entranced by the
arrival of a visiting baroness, Liina is pushed to one side, and has to
turn to Witchery to try and get Hans to notice her.

Meanwhile, the Dead turn up to take a meal with their living

relatives and have saunas that turn them into human sized
Chickens. Death, or The Plague, turns up as a young woman, who
transforms into a goat who then transforms into pig, but if you wear
your trousers on your head, Death will look the other way.

If you want a servant, you can make one and bring it to life with the
help of the devil. By selling your soul, the devil will put it into a
Kratt, a supernatural servant made from discarded bones, tree
branches, and rubbish…but if you don’t make it work, it’ll kill you.

There is so much here, and I haven’t mentioned half of it, wolf

transformations, talking snowmen, crazy old hags, a man baking his
excrement into bread as a love potion, a cow being lifted into the air
by a pissed off Kratt, the list goes on.

Director Rainer Sarnet‘s unique, hypnotic, beguiling film is very

very strange, and wont be for everyone, especially those that just
like their movies ‘blockbustered’ but for anyone that likes to take a
chance on new cinematic voices, this may be one for you.
Having just seen 1952’s The White Reindeer, I would not be
surprised if Sarnet and his amazing DP, Mart Taniel’s black and
white photography was inspired by this film, along with some of it’s
themes. In the accompanying booklet by film critic and writer
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, she speaks of Sarnet and Taniel
shooting the majority of the film in the lush greens of summer, yet
by using Infra-Red cameras, they are able to get beautiful blown out
whites with the overexposed brightness, along with the crisp blacks
to make a film that looks absolutely gorgeous in every shot.
Many of the actors in the film are non-professionals, again harking
back to The White Reindeer influences, but every character in this
film (from Rea Lest’s beautiful performance as Liina to Dieter Laser
– of Human Centipede fame – as the Baron) are perfectly played,
and all characters are beautifully realised, even if some like the
Devil are played comical, almost buffoonish.
The music by Michal Jacaszek and sound design for this film almost
hits the heights of the visuals, but this is a film that sells itself on
being magically weird and surreal, it is never uninteresting, and is a
tour de force of foreign cinema at its best. This is a film to show
people purely for how visual cinema can be, and justifiably won
numerous awards for its cinematography at various festivals.
Kratts - beautiful look, feel
Gorgeous shot, lit, monochrome
The Plague - death in disguise of a pig
Rea Lent - beautiful performance.
Weird surreal story, never uninteresting
Everyone stealing from everyone else
Music/sound design magical and utterly fitting/beguiling
DP Mart Taniel’s black-and-white imagery, which ranges from
sootiest darkness to a translucently overexposed brightness.
Devil at the crossroads in the woods, almost comical, buffoonish
Ghosts, saunas Giant chickens
Non pro actors
Infra red cameras to make the whites white
SPECIAL FEATURES

 1080p presentation on Blu-ray, with a progressive encode on the

DVD
 Uncompressed LPCM 2.0 audio (on Blu- ray)
 Optional English subtitles
 Trailer
 A collector’s booklet featuring a new essay by film critic and writer
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas