The Bride

(Nevesta, Svyatoslav Podgaevskiy, Russia 2017, 93 min., DCP, Russian w/subtitles)

Through a Lens Darkly | Rochester Premiere. A nineteenth-century artist who specializes in death photography—the practice of photographing the recently deceased to honor them and ease the transition to grief for their loved ones—loses his wife in a tragic accident. He takes her photograph posed in a favorite chair and with open eyes painted over her closed eyelids. In an effort to revive his dead wife’s soul in another body, he kidnaps a young virgin and buries her with the corpse. What comes back is not what the photographer was expecting. Years later, a young couple who want to be married on the estate discover that, despite the passage of time and the years of neglect, a strange spirit still haunts the house.