Synopsis

In the 19th century, a small village in Estonia is visited by evil spirits, creatures and epidemics. Liina, a farm girl falls in love with Hans, a village boy, but he does not love her back. He is interested in a girl from a better family. To win Hans over, Liina agrees to a pact with the devil and turns into a werewolf. November is a wild and unconventional mix of romance, horror film and folk tales based on the Estonian bestselling novel Rehepapp ehk November by Andrus Kivirähk. The film brings together the pagan mythologies of ancient Estonia and the Christian mythology of Europe, as the director Rainer Sarnet explains: “Both mythologies seek miracles: an archaic power that gives one a soul. The film is about the soul – about selling it, about life without it and about longing for a soul.”Sarnet’s spectacularly filmed, black and white movie overjoys and thrills, from the first to the last picture. For his excellent camera work and visual style, based on the peasant pictures of the folk photographer Johannes Pääsuke in the early 20th century, director of photography Mart Taniel was awarded at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival in New York.November was also submitted as the Estonian contribution for the Oscar in the Foreign Language Film category