Coming Soon
THE SNOW QUEEN
1986
Director
Päivi Hartzell
Starring
Satu Silvo
Outi Vainionkulma
Sebastian Kaatrasalo
Elina Salo
Esko Hukkanen
Saara Pakkasvirta
Runtime
90 min.
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A Beacon Holiday Tradition!
The most visually baroque and enchantedly nightmarish adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale! Päivi Hartzell's THE SNOW QUEEN is a surreal and sinister film with such an astonishingly eye-popping style that it's been enshrined as a perennial Beacon tradition.
The Snow Queen, looking like a Butoh performer from Mars, needs an emerald frozen inside the ice to rule the universe with the Crown of Darkness. But she can't access the precious stone with her own icy hands; she needs a gallant boy with warm hands to commit the deed with a mystical black sword. For this purpose she abducts Kai. The film follows Kai's sister Kerttu on her journey to rescue her brother. Kerttu travels through beautiful and hostile lands, contending with a parade of strange and threatening characters on the way, from extravagantly costumed rococo witches to filthy glam-punk robbers hiding and singing shanties in the mountains.
Director Päivi Hartzell came from a background in theatrical costume design and worked for years to bring this dream project to the screen. Cosmically strange and overflowing with a scarred sense of childlike wonder this rarely seen landmark of Finnish cinema is the perfect wintry fantasy epic!
FOR FANS OF: Labyrinth, Suspiria, Return to Oz, taking molly at the flower store, glamour shots from a frozen void, ballerina witchcraft, Eastern European fantastika, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Company of Wolves, the uncomfortable horniness of Ridley Scott's Legend, candy-colored Jean Cocteau, Kenneth Anger fairy tales
The most visually baroque and enchantedly nightmarish adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale! Päivi Hartzell's THE SNOW QUEEN is a surreal and sinister film with such an astonishingly eye-popping style that it's been enshrined as a perennial Beacon tradition.
The Snow Queen, looking like a Butoh performer from Mars, needs an emerald frozen inside the ice to rule the universe with the Crown of Darkness. But she can't access the precious stone with her own icy hands; she needs a gallant boy with warm hands to commit the deed with a mystical black sword. For this purpose she abducts Kai. The film follows Kai's sister Kerttu on her journey to rescue her brother. Kerttu travels through beautiful and hostile lands, contending with a parade of strange and threatening characters on the way, from extravagantly costumed rococo witches to filthy glam-punk robbers hiding and singing shanties in the mountains.
Director Päivi Hartzell came from a background in theatrical costume design and worked for years to bring this dream project to the screen. Cosmically strange and overflowing with a scarred sense of childlike wonder this rarely seen landmark of Finnish cinema is the perfect wintry fantasy epic!
FOR FANS OF: Labyrinth, Suspiria, Return to Oz, taking molly at the flower store, glamour shots from a frozen void, ballerina witchcraft, Eastern European fantastika, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Company of Wolves, the uncomfortable horniness of Ridley Scott's Legend, candy-colored Jean Cocteau, Kenneth Anger fairy tales