In the middle of nowhere, five men are stuck in a snowstorm. One has to cross the woods to reach town, but that’s madness during winter: the road is snowed over, the way is unclear and the wolves are hungry.
Still, early one morning, Petar Motorov harnesses his sleigh and heads to town. Nobody sees him leave, but the falling snow hasn’t fully erased his tracks. But when the sleigh returns, Motorov isn’t on it. Inside the men find only his fur coat, his shotgun, and the frozen carcass of a wolf. Where is Petar Motorov, and what has happened to him?
Five men caught in a limbo between life and death, past and present, communism and capitalism, known and unknown, here and there, try to resolve a mystery, which slowly devours them. Inspired by the eponymous play by Nobel Prize Nominee Yordan Radichkov and reinterpreted by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Andrey Paounov, January is the bold fiction debut from a director who has made his name by exploring the existential absurdities of the post-socialist state.
This film contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.
Embrace your inner long winter with this brooding and immersive horror tale
January uses the arsenal of fiction and all its gorgeous artifice to get to the core of a humanistic truth – there is no bigger mystery than man.
powerful atmosphere and intense performances until the very end.