Spring Flowers, Spring Frost

Albania, at the end of the twentieth century, a decade after the fall of the Communist regime. In a small town at the foot of the northern highlands, the harsh blood-for-blood law of the mountain folk, the fearsome Kanun, is emerging from hibernation, like everything else forbidden under the fifty years of Communist rule. Mysterious events that are two thousand years, two centuries, or even two years old reemerge in daily life. The marriage of a girl and a snake is not just a legend but a news item -- a cyclical event that is as much part of the modern as of the anicent world. Set against this Kafkaesque backdrop, a simple and sensual love story between a painter and a girl stands out as light against dark. -- cover.