A Yakut horror film about ancient spirits and the things that can happen to careless people on a cursed land.
Timir (Ilya Yakovlev), Liza (Marina Vasilieva), and their little son Michil come to visit Timir’s parents, who live in an isolated house at the edge of the forest and the river Lena. Timir’s younger brother Aisen (Borislav Stepanov) helps their parents around the house and dreams of moving to the city like Timir. But Timir is running away from dangerous people to whom he owes money and has come to try and persuade his parents to sell the house. As the atmosphere in the house becomes tense, horrifying things start happening at night.
In Yakut mythology, Itchi are protective spirits that can live in the ground or various objects. But in the film, the spirit is quite the opposite: a cursed soul that brings death to a remote corner of Yakutia. And if the first half of Kostas Marsaan’s film (My Killer, 2016) has a comprehensible narrative, the second is a dreamlike, nightmarish ordeal for both the protagonists and the viewer.
Spirit of Itchi
Director: Kostas Marsaan
Russia, 2020. 88 min. 16+
