Sampo (Blu-ray)

SAMPO (THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE), 1959, Finland/USSR, 91 min.Dir. Aleksandr Ptushko.Based on the Finnish national epic “Kalevala,” Ptushko’s ravishing, mystical fantasy tells the story of a sinister witch Louhi (Anna Orochko) who covets the Sampo,a magical, rainbow-colored mill that can produce endless salt, grain and gold.When the hero Lemminkäinen (Andris Oshin) attempts to stop her, Louhi literally steals the sun, plunging the world into eternal darkness.Shot like its predecessor ILYA MUROMETS in gorgeous CinemaScope, SAMPO features some of Ptushko’s most surreal and fantastical imagery: a glowing red horse plowing a field of vipers; a boat of fire with a stag’s head; a weeping mother literally walking across the sea to find her lost son.With its witch’s incantations and repeated scenes of forging magical items – “Give me fire for the furnace from the nave of the sky!” – there is an almost “Macbeth”-like occult/supernatural force to the film as well, underscored by the raging blue-gray seas and rock-strewn landscapes.Released in the U.S. in a dubbed, butchered version as THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE (and later mocked on MST3K), SAMPO has been beautifully restored in 4K by KAVI – the Finnish National Audiovisual Institute for its first-ever release in its original Finnish-language version by Deaf Crocodile.(In Finnish with English subtitles.)