one of my absolute favorites!

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Fresh after watching this for the first time (certainly not the last!), here are some un-assorted notes of what I felt.I got this Soviet "fairy tale" movie with Feb. 2009 SuperIllu (German DEFA dub only, rated "for age 0 and above", titled "Die Eisfee" (ice fairy)), and it sure excited me more than many "adult" movies I watched in the last few years.Father Frost (not shown) has many snowflakes as grand-daughters, of whom we follow one, Lyuba, as she turns into a human, moves in with a queer old couple, falls in love with potter Gridya, is abducted by the (surprisingly subtle) duke to marry him, escapes to turn into snowflake again, shock-freezes a number of people, and finally turns back into human again in Gridya's arms.There's so much style in this seemingly kiddie movie (which I did not find childish at all). Even though in sound (including much Tchaikovsky music, strong folk song & dance, and fiddle music that sounded Irish to me) and color, many scenes exude the glorious histrionics of silent movies. Great visuals too - scenes in the snow, the duke's "castle"...Extremely lovely, though very far away from conventions as seen from Hollywood. I liked Aleksandr Rou's kiddie movies (Baba Yaga and all), but this one sure trumps them. 9/10.