Song of Songs

The acclaimed story by respected modern Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem served as inspiration for Ukrainian filmmaker Eva Neymann, whose third picture offers a beguiling portrayal of the Jewish shtetl at the beginning of the 20th century. The poetic film, which seeks more to create the right mood than provide a classic narration, weaves its motif of childhood love between ten-year-old Shimek and Buzya, a girl his age whose intensity Shimek only comes to realise on the threshold of adulthood. Through the dreamy eyes of the child protagonists and with the appropriate degree of nostalgia, the director presents us with magical images of a lost world. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)