An unexpected masterpiece, just listening to those choruses reminiscent of Debussy’s sirens. When I woke up on Tuesday, I didn’t know that such a profound yet simple film existed, and now I’m saving its beautiful details for when it snows again and I remember Kala, unredeemed, or Andrej, brave in peace, peaceful without being passive after being chased through the forest, almost dying and returning to his farm.

What an elegant way to weave the fate of Kala, who mourned in a barn with a wild animal and was left without an owner when the Germans killed him. It is so unfortunate that a stupid war interrupts a group of villagers celebrating a traditional festival (in my country they call it mijiganga) and that the villagers, like the character here, have to go to the front and take responsibility for a fight that is none of their business.

The Germans kidnap the animal in a vain attempt to tame it. Poor ignorant people, here we see the ridiculousness of trying to train an animal that no longer grew up as a puppy with a trainer. They don’t succeed. Kala escapes to live, says the narrator, looking for clues about her owner. Anyway, she is taken in by wolves, but as the saying goes, those who run with wolves learn to run fast.

Kala encounters friends whom she later loses, including the beautiful horse she finds in the mountains. She might have had better luck with the wolves, had it not been for the war ending and, as I said, Andreiy returning to his farm. But the villagers have suffered the loss of animals thanks to the wolves, and it is Kala who pays the price. The hope, just like the war, is that the pair of puppies will make Andreiy happy, as he wants to have children with his wife.