There were many movies that I really wanted to review but this is the one that has finally forced me to register.
Perinbaba is a cult film in Slovakia (and Czech Republic to some extent). It is broadcasted every year during Christmas holidays, everyone knows it and everyone has seen it and rightfully so. The director, Juraj Jakubisko, is very artistic - too artistic actually, most of his movies are simply too allegorical for most of the viewers to enjoy. But for some reason, when it comes to this fairy tale, it works perfectly.
Well, it is a fairy tale only on paper. And I viewed it as a fairy tale when I was a kid (and I enjoyed it very much). But once you become an adult, you start to notice all the metaphors and allegories in this movie and you begin to enjoy it even more.
As a kid, you watch this movie and you see a fairy tale about a young boy falling in love and pursuing that love, despite having to face many obstacles in order to do so. As an adult, you see a very real, hidden story of a man coming of age, a story of love, sex, greed, lust, death...
A young boy, Jakub, sheltered from the world by the motherly figure Perinbaba escapes his "mother's nest" despite her efforts to keep him protected forever. He does it for a girl, Albetka, and he is forced to face the real world. An world full of evil, sadness, even Death herself. And a world full of beauty, beauty that is worth all the suffering.
It is not a typical fairy tale. Yes, it has some aspects of a fairy tale, but in some aspects it is also a horror movie, it is a very sexual movie (though this is cleverly hidden from the younger audiences, maybe even most of the adult audiences) and most of all, it is a movie about every man's journey from childhood to adulthood. The Slovak folklore, culture, mentality and the style of Jakubisko might make it a bit hard to understand and fully appreciate for foreign viewers, but you should give it a try nevertheless.
I am very tempted to say 10/10, but OK, 9/10 (just to leave 10/10 for really PERFECT movies).
