The Story of the Voyages

"Skazka Stranstviy" is the story of a young brave girl Martha and her search for the lost little brother Mai who possessed a gift (or a curse) of finding the buried treasures and who was kidnapped by the villains many years ago. On her long search, Martha becomes friends with a poet, visionary, and genius inventor Orlando, and together they would visit many dangerous places and encounter disasters and miracles including plague, betrayal, fears, loyalty, courage, flying, hope, and death...

I have not seen this wonderful movie for almost twenty years but my dear friend sent me last night the links to some scenes that feature the soaring score by incomparable Alfred Schnitke and watching them for over and over took me back in time to the world that has gone but always stays with me - the world of memory. I was surprised how well I remember "Skazka Stranstviy". I even remember how I watched it for the first time in the Moscow Theater, and how unusual, dark, scary, philosophical yet uplifting it was. Its look reminds the paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hieronymus Bosch at their gloomiest and grimmest. Its spirit is not always optimistic or suited for young children but Tale of the Voyages is dramatic, intense, even tragic but always poetic, moving, and spiritual - not unlike Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the voyages, "The Snow Queen". Alfred Schnitke's truly breathtaking score gives the movie the unique appeal by taking you so far and high above the earth that not even the "highest-flying birds of memory" and regrets could reach you.

I read from the other reviews that that this skazka is not a regular fairy tale - it depends on what we call a fairy tale. If you think of them, fairy tales, the unabridged versions of them are often scary, graphic, disturbing, violent, bloody, gory, and fascinating. Brothers Grimm's, Hans Christian Anderson's, Oscar Wilde's fairy tales, myths and legends of ancient Greece - there are elements of pure horror and tragedy in these fairly tales. "Skazka Stranstviy" reminds more of these classics rather than their Disney's adaptations, and that makes it unforgettable watching (and sound) experience that the viewers remember many years after they saw it and want to compare their impressions as adults with those from their childhood.

Andrei Mironov (Orlando) proved once again what huge talent he possessed and how much he could've done had he not died untimely at the age of 46 in 1987.