Soviet villagers summon Satan for a hot meal. What could go wrong? (Everything. Everything goes wrong.)
1946, a poverty-stricken village, and a hungry winter is ahead. To their misfortune, boys find a book on black magic at an abandoned royal manor. With the help of dark forces, any wish can be granted. Now the whole village is infected with a delusional idea - to make a deal with the Devil. But what price must be paid? A price that leads to a tragic and terrible denouement.
Direction
Two directors, one unified vision of creeping doom
Production
Authentic 1946 village recreated in late USSR decay
Director
Boris Durov
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during perestroika's final gasp, this reflects genuine USSR rural poverty that persisted decades after WWII. The hunger isn't period detail — it's memory.
Martins Vilsons (Чумак) was a Latvian actor; his casting as the wandering outsider hints at ethnic tensions barely beneath the surface. The 'foreign' stranger brings corruption, or merely reveals it.
SU
