Product Description

Finland released, PAL/Region 2 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Finnish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ),English ( Subtitles ),Finnish ( Subtitles ),Swedish ( Subtitles ),ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Trailer(s),SYNOPSIS: An elderly Nenet woman in teepee on northern Russia's Jamal Peninsula recounts her early life betrothed to a deity for the entertainment of a blind young girl in ethnographic feature 'A Bride of the Seventh Heaven.' Third pic by director Anastasia Lapsui ('Seven Songs From the Tundra,' 'Mothers of Life') covers similar frozen turf, offering a visually fascinating yet dramatically pokey look at a unique and vanishing way of life at the top of the world. In the Nenet culture, a girl child can be married to holiest of holies, Num, before or after her birth. Lonely old Numbd Syarda (which means, literally, 'tied to Num') entertains the blind young Ilne ('giver of life') with stories of how she became one of these chosen few. Action follows various shamanistic ceremonies and rituals. Based in Finland, Nenet helmer Lapsui herself suffered temporary blindness as a child, and pic is based on stories she heard from various 'brides of god' during this time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #187926 in DVD
• Formats: Import, PAL, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Subtitled in: English, Swedish, Finnish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Features

• THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER

Customer Reviews

More of a documentary than a film, but a fascinating one if you like this kind of stuff
There are no actors here, at least in the traditional sense. The filmmakers hired several Nenets tribespeople to play the roles in the movie - which is positioned as a tale told by an old woman to a young blind girl. It's the story of a girl selected at birth (through a holy man's divination) to be the bride of one of the tribe's gods. She is segregated from the rest of the tribe--especially the men--to ensure her purity for the god. Upon reaching adulthood, she is sent off to live alone, presumably to be taken up by the god at a time he deems appropriate. Needless to say she becomes lonely and looks for companionship. She finds it in a couple that sets up their tent nearby. Initially, they agree to a polygamous relationship, but things eventually sour and she is forced to leave them. Her yearning for a child goes unfulfilled as she must return to live alone in her tent.

Nenets people still live as nomads on the Russian tundra, eating reindeer and living in movable camps. They don't have much interaction with western civilization. These people have barely heard of a movie, and their way of telling stories is completely different to ours.

When watching the film, it's key to remember that the actors are real Nenets people and not actors. It is completely new for them to act for a camera and the directors have done pretty good work with this movie. It does go veeery slowly though. "Jumalan Morsian" is an interesting journey into a world that's completely different from ours, and it gives us just a glimpse of the Nenets lifestyle, religion and culture. Quite fascinating in its way.