Nunca Mais Nevará

Zhenia, (Alec Utgoff), is a kind of itinerant masseur who's also something of a shamen. He was born in Chernobyl seven years to the day before the accident and as a client suggests he may be radioactive. He's now plying his trade around a fancy gated estate in Poland, the kind of place where the Stepford Wives might live. There's no backstory to Zhenia other than he can hypnotise people and momentarily take over their lives, (that's how he seems to have got his work permit), and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert's wonderful film "Never Gonna Snow Again" could be a Polish 'Wizard of Oz' before Dorothy came on the scene as Zhenia makes himself at home in other people's houses, bending them to his will while simultaneously becoming a little like them for a time.

'Realism' in the conventional sense is conspicuously absent. I mean, how did Zhenia get in touch with these clients, all living within walking distance of each other in this strangely bland community? What's his purpose there and who exactly is he and why can he move a glass across a table without touching it? Teasingly these are questions Szumowska and Englert want us to ask without giving us any answers.

Naturally, it's a comedy and a rather black one though it's never particularly funny. Whimsical would be a better term. It might even remind you a little of Pasolini's "Theorem" and visually it's often quite extraordinary. That it slipped by, virtually unnoticed, even in the art-house circuit, is a shame since it is totally engaging from start to finish. Do try to see it.

Great storytelling, very good acting and every frame a painting. I good enjoy the way it has been shot and lit and still stay in de magic of the story. ISeeing this film was a gift.

Poland's submission to the 93 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film focuses on a Ukrainian masseur working in an affluent area who gains a cult following. Malgorzata Szumowska's "Sniegu juz nigdy nie bedzie" ("Never Gonna Snow Again" in English) addresses the issues of class, the status of guest workers, and the environment (with people concerned that global warming will end frozen precipitation). Usually this is the sort of movie that I would expect to come from the US, Canada or western Europe - I understand that a number of Poles work in the UK - but it appears that even Poland brings in foreigners to do the work that the locals don't want to do; indeed, they mention Pakistanis working in the country.

I don't know that I would call it a great movie, but still worth seeing. A mystifying look at class issues in the former Eastern Bloc, and another movie calling attention to the biggest threat that civilization has ever faced.

Really enjoyed this film and loved the music score. Can any wonderfully enlightened person please tell me the music used for the cabaret/dance and then the magic act later in the movie? Many thanks.

Beautiful fairytale with mesmerasing structure, story and acting. I loved especially the chernobyl thread.