Playing from Plates

Kolski's enigmatic mix of fantastic allegory, mystic fairytale, and bucolic comedy tosses together a crew of peasant weirdos - an elderly farmer visited by the Angel of Death, a dwarf would-be nurse whom he saves from suicide, a two-faced 'monster' who lives at the bottom of his well, and a mad fiddler who 'reads' shards of crockery as inspiration for his fatally hypnotic rhapsodies - to create a meandering Beauty and the Beast-style parable about the transforming power of love. Ludicrous, for sure, and not, as far as one can gather, politically correct or progressive; still, the sheer, wayward inventiveness of the whole thing ensures a certain oddball appeal.