Lokis. Rekopis profesora Wittembacha

A curious foray into the fantastic universe in a 1970 Polish film, directed by Janusz Majewski, based on a short story by the French romantic Prosper Merimée.

A pastor's journey to 19th century Lithuania in search of the region's folkloric roots, where he will find a strange connection between a noble Vilnius family and the bears that populate their territory.

In addition to this literal reading of a fantastic tale, which romantics loved so much, I allow myself to extract a more political interpretation of the film.

Considering Poland's historical moment in 1970, this film can also be read as a critique of the decadent and futile aristocracy and a reminder to Soviet power that Lithuania was culturally and historically part of Poland, despite the invasion ordered by Stalin in 1940, in the course of the infamous Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Pact, which divided Poland between the Nazis and the Soviets. Or not.

Lokis sees a pastor, Professor Wittembach (Edmund Fetting), travelling to the country home of Count Michal Szemiot (Józef Duriasz), whose library contains many rare books of great interest. One of the books tells of how, shortly after her marriage, the Count's mother was carried away by a wild bear. After she was rescued by a hunter, she found out that she was pregnant but became convinced that the baby wasn't completely human. Is the Count a Lokis, the half human spawn of the bear that attacked his mother?

Beautiful cinematography and impressive camerawork make Lokis a feast for the eyes, but the film takes a long time to go nowhere and it doesn't always make sense, with quite a few seemingly pointless scenes. As a horror, it is severely lacking in chills and scares, and the ending is frustratingly abrupt and ambiguous: is the Count really a were-bear or is he just barking mad like his mother?

3/10 -- Too slow and strange with not enough horror for my liking.

A pastor stays at the home of a young nobleman when he comes to study folklore in Lithuania.A local doctor tells the pastor his host may be the union of a bear and the man's addle-brained mother.When the young noble is married,he disappears into the woods while his wife remains behind suffering from bite marks.Out of sheer boredom the doctor had perpetuated the story to alarm visitors of the small village and the pastor questions his faith when he believes him..."Lokis" is a slow-moving and suitably creepy Gothic horror film that carefully builds the air of menace and dread.It's also one of the most famous Polish horror films-even reviewed in remarkable 'Fear Without Frontiers" by Steven Jay Schneider.Check out Polish DVD,if you have a chance.

Lokis ("The Bear") does a good job at setting up a foreign world. Set in the 19th century, a German minister travels to rural Poland to study the local folklore and to view a rare book in the collection of a count. This count is a strange man with an insane mother who was attacked by a bear as a newlywed and believes that her son is the progeny of that bear. Attending the sick woman is a city doctor who can barely hide his contempt for the country and his employers. Into this world comes the minister. The viewer immediately identifies with him because we, like the protagonist, are outsiders in a strange world. Like him, we wonder at the odd sights and beliefs (at a wedding, the bride is slapped during the service). The film is aided by the visual look which expresses a time gone by.

The problem is that the film does not go anywhere. There is a moody ambiance. An occasional odd moment suggests something fearful is coming, yet, nothing scary ever happens. Somehow the horror has been left out of the horror movie.

When a Pastor travels to meet a nobleman at his rural estate, he expects a quiet retreat, enabling him to peruse the man's library of rare books. What he doesn't expect is a journey into mysticism, insanity, and darkness.

LOKIS plays like a costume drama with horror elements. It's subtle. Very subtle. So, it would be disappointing to assume that loads of action and gore are in the offing. Instead, it's more of a strange movie with an unsettling atmosphere. As others have stated, the time period is handled well / realistically, giving the film a truly gothic feel. There are some glorious shots of the Polish castles and other structures, along with the beautiful countryside.

The ambiguous finale points to something otherworldly, but still leaves much to the imagination...