Direction: Malgorzata Szumowska / Michal Englert
Country: Poland
Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska (Body, 2015; Mug, 2018) teams up with her cinematographer ex-husband, Michal Englert, in the direction, aiming to leave some magic in the air with Never Gonna Snow Again, a lightly layered drama with enchanting tones and an ambivalent playfulness.
The story follows Zhenia (Alec Utgoff), a Ukrainian masseur born in the now ghost-town Pripyat, nearby Chernobyl, who moves to a wealthy Polish neighborhood and builds a sort of cult following through the gift of touching the peoples’ souls and healing them. Experiencing faint memories of his childhood, the popular Zhenia proves to be a hard worker who can make his female clients jealous, even if he has no time for intimate relationships.
Shot with taste, the film benefits from a hypnotic camera work and balanced image compositions, allowing you to enjoy these characters even more. The low-key Utgoff conveys the requisite curiosity and charm that Zhenia requires, spicing up the psychological phenomenon that he carries with him without touching any dark mysticism. On the contrary, everything is subtle and sensitively ironic, shaping up into a provocative satire that is punctuated with controlled surreal hysteria and some offbeat wit.
The idea for the film came from a real Ukrainian masseur but the filmmakers are more interested in dissecting the vulnerabilities of the Polish bourgeoisie than really scrutinize which type of superpowers Zhenia was gifted with. Sometimes giving the sensation that is going to dry out, the plot never flounders and maintains its steady pulse. To tell the truth, I was never truly hypnotized but never lost the interest either.
