Despite the Falling Snow 2016

     The setting of this film is Moscow of the 1950’s during the days of the post-Stalinist Soviet Union.  It is based on the book Before Snow Falls by Shamim Sarif, the writer and director.  Communist Katya secretly spies for the Americans in the Cold War arms race.  She lost her parents during the Stalinist repressions.  She lands her biggest assignment, stealing secrets from rising government star Alexander “Sasha” Ivanov.  She doesn’t expect to fall in love with Sasha but she does.  They marry and he decides to defect when he has an opportunity to go to the United States.  He expects that the Americans will be able to get Katya out of Moscow.  Later, when he asks about Katya, the Americans say they have lost contact with her??

     There are some changes from the book in the movie.  I thought it was confusing with Rebecca Ferguson playing the spy Katya Grinkova and then later she turns up as another character.  She is Lauren Grinkova and not related to Katya  but she looks like her except for her hair??  Lauren is actually the niece of Sasha and she visits Russia 30 years later with Sasha to learn Katya’s fate.  Supposedly, Lauren has been helped by a journalist to find out Katya’s story.  Perhaps the main fault of this movie is that it’s a short film but it attempts to juggle two stories.  Each story is set in a different time period.  The hurry up and believe the central romance between Katya and Sasha can’t pass muster if only the writers believe it??  3* (this movie is OK) 
    
93 min, Drama directed and written by Shamin Sarif With Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance, Anthony Head, Antije Traue, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Sam Reid, Amy Nuttall, Thure Lindhardt, Jelena Gavrilovic, Imogen Daines, Ben Batt, Tamara Krcunovic, Anne Kidd, Milos Timotijevic, Nenad Herakovic.

Note:  Imdb 5.8* out of 10* with 2,187 views, Rotten Tomatoes 9% with 22 critics 42% audience with 234 ratings, the Guardian 2* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Empire Online 2* out of 5*  Ian Freer, Amazon 3.2* out of 5* with 158 reviews, Metacritic 33 out of 100 with 8 critics (6 mixed 2 negative) 6 out of 10 with 6 ratings (2 positive 3 mixed 1 negative), Den of Geek 2* out of 5* Mark Harrison, Letterboxd 2.7* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Belgrade, Serbia.  The song in the end credits is “Now That You Love Me Again” by Ella Henderson.  Rebecca plays both the role of Katya and Lauren and she said she would listen to the music that she thought each character would have liked.  This helped her separate the two roles in her head.  She would not disclose what music she used for either character??