Perinbaba. (source: Dafilms.sk)
I don’t normally watch a lot of TV, but this Christmas was spent with family in eastern Slovakia where it’s more or less compulsory.
It may just have been the profusion of TV sets – one in every room, typically with the sound up – but I was struck by the sheer volume of ‘fairy tale films’ on the air.
These movies – typically set in some non-specific pre-modern period in which princes ride around on horseback, comely maidens need rescuing from evil stepmothers, everyone lives in a castle with a view of the High Tatras, and witches (good or bad) can resolve all plot dilemmas – have always been a thing in Slovakia, but this year they seemed to be playing on a virtual loop.
The TV stations were promoting them hard: Markíza even had an animated sequence advertising its vast schedule of upcoming ‘rozprávky’.
The Czechoslovak classics of this genre were shot in the 1970s and 80s – a period when Slovaks, as now, were in a bit of a rut, and in need of distraction. The sets and costumes are impressive and, given the complete absence of CGI, the effects deserve full marks for effort, if not always execution.
It’s striking how even the more subversive and/or surreal examples speak to a yearning for simpler times and traditional values. In fact, a lot of them are surprisingly grown-up in themes and content (dubbed versions of ‘Shrek’ and ‘Home Alone’ serve the kids-only audience).
The epitome is probably Juraj Jakubisko’s 1985 ‘Perinbaba’ (currently available on Netflix under the title ‘The Feather Fairy’, although the eponymous main character is confusingly referred to as ‘Lady Winter’ in the English subtitles).
It’s worth a look, though don’t ask me what it’s all about: there’s a sort of love story in there somewhere, and possibly a morality tale too, but it’s more a slightly fevered 95-minute dream sequence. And a lot of feathers.
