A healer nicknamed Scarecrow, capable of curing the worst illnesses, lives in a Yakutian village. The locals avoid her in their daily life but turn to her for help when things go wrong. Dmitry Davydov’s mystical drama is a great achievement of Yakutian cinema, a seamless mix of horror, parable, and local folk stories.
A woman known as Scarecrow lives in a Yakutian village. She is a healer and possesses the gift of curing seemingly incurable illnesses and saving the terminally ill who have lost all hope. Ostracised by the locals, she is the one they ask for help when everything else fails. Saving others by taking on their illnesses is her fate and doom. Sacrificing herself every time she saves a life, she is unable to stop: her burdening gift is the only thing that connects her to others and makes her feel needed.
Scarecrow is the third feature by Dmitry Davydov—one of the key filmmakers of Yakutia, who has taken the region’s independent cinema—unique in both Russian and international contexts— to a new level—and to the international stage. In Scarecrow, he effortlessly combines the authentic and mystical Yakutian culture—its rites, mythology, stories, beliefs, and folklore—with equally old and deep traditions of genre art, and specifically of folk tale, parable, and horror. Ethnic singer and non-professional actress Valentina Romanova-Chyskyyray is as realistically natural as she is magically expressive in the leading role.
The film will be shown in Yakutian with Russian subtitles.
Scarecrow
Director: Dmitry Davydov
Russia, 2020. 72 min. 16+