Directors Abroad

Snow

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Snow follows a day in the life of an oil rig worker, Loeffen, set against the backdrop of the harsh and desolate winter landscape of Northern Canada. It is December 22nd, which is the Winter Solstice—the shortest day and longest night of the year. Loeffen and his beloved dog and constant companion, Blackie, need to drive from the oil rig to the nearest settlement, Zama, for supplies. This small settlement in the middle of nowhere provides Loeffen with a much needed change in his routine and he looks forward to the trip. However, his journey brings with it more than Loeffen bargained for, as fate and destiny conspire to lead him to an isolated cabin outside Zama, where a kindly old resident will spend that one bitterly cold night with him.

The director, Hakan Şahin, calls Snow “an attempt to glance at the truthfulness that emerges from the fringe figures in life.” As one listens to Loeffen’s running conversation with his dog, Blackie, and then follows Loeffen in Zama trying to connect with his favorite waitress or some young girls in a town hall party, one comes to see the way the cold, the darkness and the isolation can sink into a man’s bones. Indeed, Snow is most powerful as the non-linear thread allows the audience to experience how life seems to lose its symmetry under these conditions, where sometimes the distinction between what is real and surreal fades.

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