For the debut of a filmmaker, it is sufficient to find such a scenery, that is already halfway to success. It is not at all disturbing that only a few sentences are uttered in the film, as the images are so nicely shot that it leaves us speechless. The director orders silence, too, and we hear more songs and prayers, being in a highly Catholic environment full of mysteries. The story starts with a tragedy. The father, on his way home with his daughter from the mountain, falls into an abyss and dies. His widow and the four daughters are left alone, and the days of mourning pass one after the other. We can see genres that hardly move, as if the whole village was frozen under the weight of the father`s death, the snow and the cold. All living organisms slow down, and even the souls are covered with heavy, frosty dew. They get dressed, comb their hair, sleep, pray, and sew, while an owl appears in the window at night, then men dressed as deers show up in the land of dawn, everything is only a winter dream, a surrealistic tale. The film that evokes both Bergman and Tarkovsky is truly characteristic while not experimental at all. A while later, desires for life and love sprout out of mourning, the boys-turned-deers sneak into the girls` rooms, a pagan feast begins. The mother`s anger fades away, and she takes the black scarf off the mirror. The sharp features turn smooth, the first snowdrops appear, and the girls in white stand by the abyss, with the signs of hope and relief on their faces. A painful yet beautiful oil painting about how life beats death.