Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Marius A. Markevicius, Defiant Screen Entertainment.
Cast: Bel Powley, Martin Wallström, Jonah Hauer-King, James Cosmo, Lisa Loven Kongsli.
It’s all about one young girl’s passion for art and her everlasting optimism that splits the silence of history.
This is a story about the crimes committed by Stalin during World War II. An ambitious tale filmed almost entirely in Lithuania, the international cast is a bonus. Not many films are made that uncover the abuses of the Soviet Union under Stalin. On the other hand, many movies are made about the horrors of Hitler’s Germany.
Ashes in the Snow touches on the crimes committed by Stalin against the eastern European countries that became part of the Soviet empire. A 16-year-old is the heroine named Lina, played by Powley. The family live in Lithuania and she is joined by her mother and brother, along with other town residents, to enforce emigration to a remote area of Siberia.
Ashes in the Snow is adapted from the 2011 novel Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, a Lithuanian-American writer, who based it on the true story of Irena Spakauskiene, a 13-year-old Lithuanian girl who was deported from Lithuania to Siberia in 1941.
At the director’s helm is a Los Angeles-based director of Lithuanian heritage, Marius Markevicius. The film is sincere and often influential, but moves slowly, thereby, detracting from maximum impact.
It certainly benefits from a series of fine performances. Powley, who has distinguished herself in such different movies as Carrie Pilby, Diary of a Teenage Girl and White Boy Rick, puts us on Lina’s side from the very earliest scenes, which dramatise her hopefulness along with her artistic talent.
Some of the other performances are even stronger. Norwegian actress Lisa Loven Kongsli (Wonder Woman, Force Majeure) is marvellous as Elena.
Can you tell us the name of the novelist who wrote the book on which this film is based? If your answer is correct, then you could be one of our three DVD winners of Ashes in the Snow. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by Monday, 23 March 2020. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column on 24 March 2020.
