Despite the Falling Snow — 2016 film starring Rebecca Ferguson and directed by Shamim Sarif
The film was shown on the 17th of August, 2016 at the Prague Independent Film Festival (PIFF) and won the awards for Best Feature Film, Best Actress (Rebecca Ferguson) and Best Supporting Actor (Anthony Head).
It is a romantic drama with elements of an espionage thriller adapted from the successful novel by Shamim Sarif with the same title. The multi-talented Shamim Sarif has filmed the adaptation herself.
Despite the Falling Snow intersects events from post-Stalinist Russia with the United States in the 1990s. The film boasts an all-star cast with Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) playing the main role of Katya, Sam Reid (Belle) as Alexander and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Faster) as Misha. Older Misha was played by Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and older Alexander was played by Charles Dance (Game of Thrones).
Rebecca Ferguson who came to international stardom with the film Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, has created an unforgettable image of a young Russian woman trapped between two men.
Enchanting faces and majestic landscapes with falling snow and an expressive score – all of this creates a passionate and mysterious atmosphere. The film was filmed in Belgrad and Canada. Nevertheless, Russia has been depicted authentically. The film is full of tension, drama and emotion.
Some critics objected to the supposedly unrealistic costumes and details of the lifestyle of Russians. However, I can not agree with that. The style of life of Russian people has always been dependent on the social status of people, even at that time and the elite which was depicted in the film certainly were not ordinary folk.
To the director’s credit, she has avoided the thoroughly traded road of vulgarization of the Russian people on the silver screen.
Perhaps some did not like the idea that the director did not follow the usual clichés of portraying Russians as vulgar, poorly dressed people who drink vodka too often and speak obscene language.
Romantic heroes by Rebecca Ferguson and Sam Reid with elements of aristocratism are far from the standard stereotypes. This makes the film fresh and striking.
The actors have created characters which are true to life and difficult to forget. There are no doubts that the film will become one of the classics of its genre.
Sarif has definitively made a great casting, the role of older Misha was played by Anthony Head who brilliantly accomplished the difficult task of creating highly emotionally charged scenes at the end of the movie. Head’s convincing acting deservedly won the Best Supporting Actor award.
