Aida Begic’s Snow

Screens Sat Jun 13: 4 and Sun Jun 14: 7

From the first scene I had a feeling I was going to like Snow. The film opens with a group of women playing charades and pretending to be various men that they are connected to.  It’s a tiny moment but one that in many ways defines the film, as Aida Begic’s story of a group of women living in the small remote war town of Slavno is a simple, poignant and visual tale of a community dealing with tragedy.

The story is captured in bright colors with emphasis on everyday actions like making the jams the women sell in order to survive. But under the colors and routine is a group of people struggling with how to honor the memories of their dead husbands and fathers while getting on with life. They are all forced to deal with that balance when two men come to their town in an effort to buy it from them and build a resort.

Story aside,  the subtleties are what makes this film truly shine.  A slow shot of a woman’s scarf blowing in the wind when she walks, a mystical subplot about a young boy whose hair grows at a overly rapid pace, the sound of plums being put through a grinder-these are the things that make Snow more than a film about  a war torn country and women with dead husbands and more a film about finding the strength to see the beauty of life.  And in a way, that is what human rights are all about.  In the words of director Aida Begic:

“The inhabitants of Slavno fiind the strength to resist and to dream their own dreams, even if sometimes they are nightmares. Freedom is a possibility of choice and they will fight for it! If you imagine a completely devastated village filled with beautiful flowers, large fruit and clean water, then you will understand the essence of a poetry which shows that construction is far more powerful than destruction.”