SEASON OF MISTS extracts every ounce of positivity from the English countryside, disassociating it from expectations of beauty and retreat, and depicting the film’s South Leicestershire village as little more than a mind-numbingly dull prison for protagonist Marina and audiences alike. But this is an important and significant quality in Anna Tchernakova’s intelligent, thoughtful and charming drama.

Having settled for a stable, but unfulfilling life in England as a hair dresser and part-time writer, forty year old Russian Marina longs for the excitement of authoring her adult fairy tales. A baroque quartet from Moscow offers escapism in the form of alcohol, native language and familiarity, but Marina displays discontent in many aspects of her life, consequently creating a conflict between the safety and assurance of Billesdon and the thrill and adventure of Moscow.

These language and cultural issues are fundamental to the story, as exemplified in the awkward bilingual exchanges between Marina and daughter Dasha, who refuses to entertain her mother’s attempts of a conversation in Russian; in loyalty to her English home and British step-father Gregory. Marina is further isolated when her husband and daughter form an alliance, deeming her passionate attempts to better her own life weird, uncharacteristic and unhealthy.

… a meaningful, emotional and tragic story …

However, one of the only things that is harmful to Marina is her dedication to her mediocre life and tedious job, where she is the unwilling recipient of meaningless gossip from three female pensioners. She displays fascination in a lonely widowed man, Darby, whose belief that his wife was abducted by aliens disturbs fellow villagers; the two characters are similarly isolated, and their tragic stories are told charmingly with a lack of dialogue, their pain skilfully depicted in their eyes and facial expressions.

Similar intelligent features are employed to communicate the film’s contrast between Billesdon and Moscow, as cinematography and colour grading enforce a sense of misery on scenes featuring the former and vibrancy in the latter, reflecting Marina’s desires. The filmmaking techniques are committed to enforcing this significant difference, resulting in a clear and powerful message throughout. SEASON OF MISTS is a meaningful, emotional and tragic story that addresses problems concerning identity, culture and life with compassion, empathy and a genuine concern for people.