Sampo 08/02/22

Ah, Gee, I wish we had a Sampo!  Fantastic imagery and folk tale poetry infuse Alexander Ptushko’s Finnish/Soviet retelling of the epic story Kalevala. An amazing source of wealth called a Sampo is stolen by a witch of the frosty North. When the bold hero Lemminkäinen journeys to retrieve it, she uses magic to blot out the sun as well. Even more mystical than Ptushko’s Ilya Muromets, it’s fully restored in anamorphic widescreen. A real work of art, it was long ago dubbed and mangled by American-International for U.S. release as The Day the Earth Froze. On Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile Films/Vinegar Syndrome.
08/02/22