"November" is a film from Estonia. Apart from "Darkness in Tallinn" (1993, Iikka Järvi-Laturi) I can't remember that I have ever seen another film from Estonia. And even counting in "Darkness in Tallinn" is not wholy justified as this film is situated in Estonia but made by a Finnish director.
"November" can be characterized as "folk horror". A genre in which christianity is mixed with or even overgrown by pagan religion. This genre was given a boost by Robert Eggers, for example in his films "The witch" (2015) and "The lighthouse" (2019). Given his success the genre proliferated to other countries, for example to Estonia but also to my homecountry the Netherlands ("Moloch", 2022, Nico van den Brink).
The story of "November" is rather simple. A girl loves a boy but this boy loves another woman. By means of black magic the girl tries to make the boy fall in love with her. The problem with the movie is however that the black magic part is rather incomprehensible. "November" shares this feature with some other Eastern European movies situated in the Middle Ages, such as "The Saragossa manuscript" (1965, Wojciech Has) and "Marketa Lazarova" (1967, Frantisek Vlacil).
Folk tales often contain a core of moralism. Take "Little Red Riding Hood" who warns teenage girls for men with sexual intentions. That later versions (Grimm brothers) took the sharp edges off is another story. For an adaptation of the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" see "The company of wolves" (1984, Neil Jordan).
Like folk tales also folk horror often contains a core of moralism, and "November" is no exception. In this film the girl faces the (moral) question how far to go with the use of black magic in order to get the boy she wants.
Apart from black magic the story also contains some historical content. The peasants in "November" are native Estonians, but the nobility is German. This draws attention to the fact that the Baltic states for a long time belonged to the sphere of influence of East Prussia. You can still see that from the names of some cities. The Lithuanian city of Klaipeida was formerly known under its German name of Memel.
"November" can be characterized as "folk horror". A genre in which christianity is mixed with or even overgrown by pagan religion. This genre was given a boost by Robert Eggers, for example in his films "The witch" (2015) and "The lighthouse" (2019). Given his success the genre proliferated to other countries, for example to Estonia but also to my homecountry the Netherlands ("Moloch", 2022, Nico van den Brink).
The story of "November" is rather simple. A girl loves a boy but this boy loves another woman. By means of black magic the girl tries to make the boy fall in love with her. The problem with the movie is however that the black magic part is rather incomprehensible. "November" shares this feature with some other Eastern European movies situated in the Middle Ages, such as "The Saragossa manuscript" (1965, Wojciech Has) and "Marketa Lazarova" (1967, Frantisek Vlacil).
Folk tales often contain a core of moralism. Take "Little Red Riding Hood" who warns teenage girls for men with sexual intentions. That later versions (Grimm brothers) took the sharp edges off is another story. For an adaptation of the original version of "Little Red Riding Hood" see "The company of wolves" (1984, Neil Jordan).
Like folk tales also folk horror often contains a core of moralism, and "November" is no exception. In this film the girl faces the (moral) question how far to go with the use of black magic in order to get the boy she wants.
Apart from black magic the story also contains some historical content. The peasants in "November" are native Estonians, but the nobility is German. This draws attention to the fact that the Baltic states for a long time belonged to the sphere of influence of East Prussia. You can still see that from the names of some cities. The Lithuanian city of Klaipeida was formerly known under its German name of Memel.