Mavka, a water nymph, loves Lukash, a country youth. Their brief happiness ends when Lukash is forced to marry the shrewish Kilina. The Spirit of the Forest turns Lukash into a wolf as punishment for his infidelity. The strength of Mavka's love breaks the spell, but Kilina curses the nymph, transforming her into a weeping willow. This beautiful and tragic story is based on a play written in 1912 by Lesya Ukrainka, a Ukrainian poet, writer and political, civil and female activist, and includes mythological characters taken from Ukrainian folklore.
It is based on Perumthachan of the Parayi Petta Panthirukulam, a legend in the Kerala folklore. The problems caused by the generation gap are explored through the relationship between a skilled carpenter and his tradition-breaking son.
The Mother is one of Monteiro’s first essays on the universe of Portuguese oral culture, folktales and obscure colloquialisms. The plot revolves around a traditional tale about theft, greed, an ubiquitous mother, and the links between the worlds of the living and the dead.
In this highly theatrical TV production, Monteiro again draws on the world of folklore – and, more precisely, on the widespread sexual connotation of the pomegranate – to tell a tale of love, envy, treason and mistaken/double identities.
To lift the spirits of her friend Mélanie, Lou brings her on a camping trip to a lone fortress on the sea. As Lou hides her little romantic secrets, Mélanie lingers in her ruminations. One morning, a solitary and enigmatic figure appears and draws Melanie into a fantastical encounter.
Padraig, a guilt laden and grief stricken man seeks the help of an eccentric carpenter, John, to help him build a coffin for his already dead and buried wife. As Padraig works with John he begins to discover an ancient hidden world of magic and mythology that has its sinister roots planted deep in the island of Ireland.
Fear and superstition take hold of a young family during a time of great hunger in 1879 Ireland.
An Asian-American high school football player is forced to confront his deepest fears after a strange encounter with a mysterious figure.
When a mystery illness infects the pigs of a village farmer and a local boy is also taken ill, the villagers try to convince a veterinarian that it is caused by a curse from a woman they believe to be a witch.
Sannasi, a folk musician, convinces Sooravali, his lover and a female dancer in his troupe, to marry Karuppaiah, a seemingly docile man. Little do they realise the sinister intentions of Karuppaiah, but when they do it is too late.
A group of teenagers go out to a den in the woods for a night of drinking, unaware that their behaviour touches on issues of ritual, folklore, mysticism and UFOs.
The film will be made up of two stories: "Ishi Okoshi" and "Ayashiki Raihousha." In "Ishi Okoshi," Natsume meets a small youkai called Mitsumi in a forest. Mitsumi is entrusted to wake up the divine youkai "Iwatetsu" from its deep slumber. Mitsumi weighs on Natsume's mind, so he sets out to help Mitsumi with his task. In "Ayashiki Raihousha," a mysterious visitor appears in front of Tanuma. Nearly every day, the visitor visits Tanuma, talks to him a little, and then leaves. Natsume, who knows the visitor is a youkai, worries for Tanuma, but Tanuma enjoys these exchanges with the youkai. The youkai means no harm, but Tanuma's health slowly starts to deteriorate.
In a poor Estonian village, a group of peasants use magic and folk remedies to survive the winter, and a young woman tries to get a young man to love her.
A Serbian émigré in Manhattan believes that, because of an ancient curse, any physical intimacy with the man she loves will turn her into a feline predator.
The plot is the embodiment of everyday belief about the impact of a certain evil force on a person. The action develops in a peasant environment.
In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his "Merantau" a century's old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community's young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta.
A story of four childhood friends who mysteriously disappeared while camping in the rural mountains of Trans Ili Alatau. The following events were recorded on Sultan's videocamera, who was making his student thesis project on a local plant called the Asafoetida.
A documentary filmmaker explores seemingly unrelated paranormal incidents connected by the legend of an ancient demon called the "kagutaba."