Despite the Falling Snow

A problem you often get when authors adapt their own books for the screen is that they’re precious about their work and reluctant to edit. The opposite is the case with British writer-director Shamim Sarif’s film of her novel ‘Despite the Falling Snow’. A romantic drama that skips between late ’50s Moscow and New York at the end of the Cold War in the early ’90s, the characters here are so underdeveloped that they’re practically embryonic.

The film tells the story of the relationship between a strait-laced politician (Sam Reid) and Soviet spy Katya (Rebecca Ferguson), which forms so quickly and with so little fanfare that when she admits she’s more interested in what’s in his briefcase than what’s in his trousers, the emotional heft barely registers.

‘Despite the Falling Snow’ is held back by stylistic choices, too. The period detailing is sharp and impressive, but it’s almost impossible to ignore the constant ropey CG snow. What’s more, a Cold War drama in which the Americans speak with exactly the same accents as the Russians is bound to confuse. And clocking in at a lean 93 minutes, there’s simply not enough time for ‘Despite the Falling Snow’ to become the poignant love story it wants to be.