A Lithuanian cult musical where a devilish marriage arrangement explodes into a wild and camp spectacle.

When the party in heaven gets out of hand, the angel Pinčiukas is sent tumbling down to earth – straight into the pond of the miller Baltaragis. A devilish bargain soon follows: Pinčiukas sets the windless mill turning and helps Baltaragis win the heart of the lovely Marcelė, demanding in return the hand of his future daughter, Jurga. Years pass, Jurga grows into a beauty and falls for the dashing Girdvainis. Pinčiukas, however, insists that a deal is a deal.

Based on Kazys Boruta’s novel “Whitehorn’s Windmill”, “The Devil’s Bride” spins folklore, romance and a Faustian pact into a dizzying carnival. Angels tipple, hell looks suspiciously like a cabaret, the red-haired, goateed devil becomes a jealous suitor and the boundaries of good taste seem to exist only to be vaulted over. The exuberant music of Lithuanian-Israeli jazz legend Vyacheslav Ganelin and Žebriūnas’ vividly theatrical direction give the film the feel of a gloriously improbable collision between the folk-romantic swagger of “The Last Relic”, the pop irreverence of “Don Juan in Tallinn” and the rock-opera abandon of “Jesus Christ Superstar”.

Best known for his poetic and sensitive touch, Arūnas Žebriūnas showed with “The Devil’s Bride” that Lithuanian cinema could also revel in pure excess. Released in 1974, the musical became one of his best-loved films – madcap, romantic and irresistibly camp.

Eva Näripea