Праздник

The town of Maardu in Estonia organises an annual Ukrainian-themed festival, called ‘Sorochinsky Fair’ after the short story by Nikolai Gogol. More than 15,000 people come every year. This is the largest Ukrainian fair outside of Ukraine, and it has even been entered into the Ukrainian Book of Records. The film is structured like a work of literature, being made up of a number of interconnected stories. The full variety of the fair and beauty contest is presented from different angles and viewpoints: that of the festival organisers, the actor playing Gogol, the instructor from the local beauty school, the visitors, and the filmmaker, who puts on an improvised casting session for the contest participants. The film then culminates in the beauty contest itself.  This festival presents life in all its vividness, variety, and unpredictability, with the beauty contest as its central motif. The protagonists of Gogol’s works are transported into the modern day in all their enchanting absurdity, and they fit in pretty well. Efforts to preserve the symbols of national culture can sometimes lead to strange results. (Estonian Film Institute)