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‘8 Views of Lake Biwa’ Review: Enigmatic Estonian Romantic Drama Floats on Striking Imagery and Burgeoning Desire
Often puzzling but ultimately fascinating, Marko Raat’s film observes a religious community seeking the love they are missing in all the wrong places.
For starters, Raat took the title, along with the names for each segment the narrative is divided into, from a series of centuries-old Japanese paintings (in turn inspired by ancient Chinese art) depicting scenic views from distinct points along the eponymous Lake Biwa, near the city of Kyoto. Take for instance Õnne (Tiina Tauraite), the local teacher who begins a relationship with Andrei (Meelis Rämmeld ), a troubled fisherman with a corrosive secret, immediately after her husband Sora (Jan Uuspõld) died in a mysterious incident. Early on, cinematographer Sten-Johan Lil captures ethereal wide shots of the lake, where the pale water and a sky covered in pillowed white clouds nearly blend into each other, only separated by a blurred horizon line, as if heaven and earth had at last become one.
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