The Battle of Kerzhenets

       I never blogged on this one either, although it was probably one of the films in class that most impressed me, just based on the animation method alone: "This film was made using Russian icons and Fresco art from the XIV-XVI centuries". Wow. For those of you who don't remember this one, shame on you. It's amazing; and it's one that Yuri Norstein worked on.
      The story was a little bit difficult to understand, but basically I think it was a city went to war and were beaten in battle. All their men who were of fighting age were slaughtered, and the remaining families were devastated. But in the end, probably several years after the battle, the city was restored by a new generation. Personally, I really like this story; maybe I shouldn't like war stories so much, but I do, especially the old ones like "The Battle of Kerzhenets" which seem full of honor and sacrifice. It's especially nice that this particular story ends with hope; many war stories do not, especially the modern fiction war novels, which tend to leave the reader with an afterward about characters who spend two decades after the war fighting a battle with depression and/or drugs and often end up committing suicide. While I believe that that really happens to veterans, do we really need every modern war novel to carry this moral about war? I mean, just stop writing war novels if they're all gonna be the same. I'm off topic.
       I was thinking that this film was based on an old story, and this is what Wikipedia told me: "The story is based on the legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (made into a 4-act opera by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1907), which disappears under the waters of a lake to escape an attack by the Mongols."
       By the way, I loved the music in this film, too. Can you say, Epic?