Juamalan morsian (2004)

	Also Known As: A bride of the seventh heaven
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio
	Actors: Ljubov Lapsui, Jana Hudi
	Country: FIN
	Genre: Drama, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 17.02.2017, Cubix8, Berlinale2017, Nenets with English subtitles
Synopsis: At birth, Syarda was promised as a bride to Num, the highest god of the Nenets. It was an isolating fate, as men were afraid to approach her and when her parents passed away, her loneliness deepened. Num spirit shows up time to time and always let her answerless. Now an elderly woman, Syarda  tells the story of her life to a blind young neighbour girl who alleviates her solitude.
Review: Second movie I watch by the charismatic Anastasia Lapsui. This story is much more vivid than the other one (Seven songs from the tundra) and easy to watch as the image quality is substantially better. And this makes it not unpleasant to watch. On the other hand, the story is less striking.  The woman suffers from the tradition all her life. It is a kind of senseless sacrifice chosen by her group at birth. This does not give much insight on the history and traditions of the Nenets, but gives a clear image of the region where they are living in. The image is in colour, of good quality. We see several landscapes. Actually some pictures of the travels of Syarda from home one to home two would have been nice.  I would have loved the tales of Seven songs with the cinematographic quality of Jumalan Morsian. Unfortunately the recent movies by Anastasia Lapsui were not screened in the Berlinale2017 but only quite old ones. She did indeed two other feature movies since Jumalan Morsian. In 2010 Sukunsa viimeinen (The last of the line) and in 2015 Tsamo. Looking forward to watching these movies.
Rating: 4 /10