Animation
"8 views" is an eastern art tradition where one place (primarily the area around Lake Biwa in Japan) is described through eight motifs, among which are scarlet, snow, sailboats returning home in the evening, rain, autumn moon, temple bell, gust of wind, flight of forest geese. These motifs frame eight intertwining tragic love stories, the setting of which are modern Russian fishing villages of old believers on the border of Estonian-Russian settlements and cultures by Lake Peipsi. The spiritualization of everything living and inanimate from Japanese animism, the eroticism of shunga and the humble language of prayer merge into a spiritual and magical world of a small community, where one still believes that one is connected with everything.
Director
A lonely young child grows up in an isolated family, delving into her inner fantasy world. The adults around her do nothing to resolve the unbearable life they are living; everybody is resigned to their fate. The mother hides behind her cigarette smoke, the grandmother is covered with her plants, and the little girl tries to alleviate her depressing circumstances with her imagination. But as she dives deeper and deeper into herself, she realises that everything that surrounds her is part of her life, and that she cannot escape or hide.
