MERMAID

Directed by Anna Melikian

(Russia, 2007, 114 min., English subtitles)

The first film offered for advanced press screening at the 34th Seattle International Film Festival, and premiering at SIFF 2008, Mermaid is rather deceptively billed as the “Russian Amèlie”, but the film is decidedly darker despite its peppering of whimsical scenes, odd-ball humor, and eccentric characters. Directed and co-written by Anna Melikian, Mermaid is the story of Alisa, the “illegitimate” off-spring of a sailor and a rather corpulent young (and naked) maiden of a semi-impoverished, sea-side village (we never see the act, and one could infer that it was a rape). Without playmates her age, and with only her husband-hunting mother and miserly grandmother to talk to, the child lives in a fantasy world; she is a bit precocious, and dreams of being a ballerina. Alisa is a misfit, of course, and becomes even more so, after a solar eclipse occurs that the villagers take to be a sign of the end of the world. When the “end” fails to happen, the 8 year old Alisa decides to stop talking completely, and this lands her in a special needs classroom in school, of which she then becomes the star pupil.

Sporadically, we see and hear the young girl’s thoughts and wishes through short, hyper-colored dream segments (framed claustrophobically with the girl in the foreground and the action in the background). At some point, the young girl begins to realize that she has some special, wish-fulfilling power—at least enough to alter the weather. In anger, or boredom, or both, she conjures up a fierce storm that decimates her village, leaving its inhabitants homeless and miserable. Ah, but in the rubble of the aftermath, her mother finds a long-hidden cache of gold (the young girl’s doing?) and the three generations of women move to the big city: Moscow. The story fast forwards soon afterwards and we then follow the (now) 17 year old Alisa (in a remarkable bit of casting; the older girl looks uncannily like her younger self) as she tries to “make it” in this thriving, absurd, and often cruel mega metropolis of post-communist Russia.

Through a series of comically capitalist odd jobs and minor disappointments, Alisa ends up as a “house cleaner” for a suicidal, yet successful, lunar real estate salesmen (that’s right, he sells Moscow’s nuveau-riche property on the moon; ya gotta love the Russians), whom she saves from drowning (she will, ultimately, save the guy’s life several times over). She resolves to win his heart despite his failure to remember who she is half the time and his involvement with a far more glamorous and sophisticated woman. We still she glimpses of her unconscious through more dream sequences as Sasha (the guy she loves) slowly and somewhat grudgingly, develops a fondness for her. Despite the noise and cruelty and absurdity of life in modern Moscow, the girl remains self-possessed and certain of some better destiny. She is told often, how “lucky” she is. And so, perhaps predictably, as Sasha’s lunar real estate company holds auditions for a spokes model, Alisa shows up with her long, dyed-green hair, and by chance becomes “the girl on the moon”. It is here that the film seems to be taking on the 'things-have-a-way-of-working-out' cinematic conventions alá Amèlie, as we are more and more taken in by this appealing, odd-duck of a girl. But we are lulled into forgetting that this is a Russian tale, and what lies ahead is anything but predictable, or light-hearted.

The acting here is neither bad, nor terribly great, but, despite some slightly shaky camera work and abrupt editing at times, the film is truly captivating, and, ultimately, subversive--which is perhaps what makes it so heart-breaking.)

M. Ricciardi