The Mermaid (2007)

Rusalka(original title)

Director: Anna Melikyan

The story centers on Alisa (Mariya Shalayeva), a young girl living with her mother and grandmother. When Alisa is a child, she longs to be a ballerina and for her father, a sailor who had a one-night-stand with Alisa’s mother (Mariya Sokova) to return to them. Alisa begins to get used to disappointment though and learns to go with the flow. What sets her apart from normal people is her ability to make wishes come true. This occasionally backfires, causing hurricanes and house fires. In the end though, Alisa always means well and is really just looking to be loved. Unfortunately, her odd nature (and the fact that she decides to stop speaking for about a decade) causes her to be somewhat of a loner. One day when she’s 18 years old, she rescues a man after he tries to kill himself and shortly afterwards, falls in love with him. The problem is, aside from hiring her to clean his apartment; he barely knows she’s alive. Sadly, this is the case with almost everyone in Alisa’s life. They know she’s there but she doesn’t really matter to them.

What stands out in Mermaid, aside from the story is the look and feel of the film. Director Anna Melikyan goes out of her way to create an almost dreamlike effect in many of the scenes, some of which are actual dreams while others are part of Alisa’s reality. I also appreciated the sound in the film. This is something I don’t usually pay much attention to in movies but the noises in the background (the ocean, city noises, wind blowing, etc) were all excellent and really helped create a sense of atmosphere throughout the movie.