The Stone flower is a fun little fantasy movie from the Soviet Union in the mid-forties. Revolves around the folktale of a small boy who decides to take up stone cutting as a profession.
Initially nobody wants him to do so, but they discover that his talents are just too good and that their former stonecutter master is going blind and will possibly die.
So they require a new person to take his place.
But while all this is going on; There's a legend about a mystical woman that lives inside the Copper Mountain who is said to control all the stones that exist in the world. In other words she's Hades.
The more intriguing parts of the film revolves around her and our main character. You see he's trying to get married to this local girl who he fancies.
But during his wedding day he runs off in search of the Mystikal stone flower so that he might improve his skills to the absolute maximum. I still think he's a bit of a jerk for running away on what was to be his wife and the fact that she wants anything to do with him afterwards is a little surprising. I guess that's the advantage of living in some horribly small village. There's not a lot of competition out there and you might just have to depend on the one person coming back because otherwise there may not be anyone else to hook up with.
We all know the real reason for her reluctance to tell this guy off is because this is a true love narrative. Two people who can see each other decide they're going to be with each other and never separate, regardless of what comes in their way. Not the external world, not other people, not even a demigoddess who gives you the promise of Eternal wealth.
There's a whole theme about that in the movie. Although that's not really what the theme of the film is about. There's this old man telling the story at the beginning of the movie to a group of children and at the end of the film he just tells them that really what they need is determination and the correct education to get where they want to in life.
Essentially it's giving you a fairy tail but then telling you that actual hard works the only way you're going to get anywhere.
Or you can be born into the ''Black Russian''* class and never have to worry a day in your life about the peasants squabbles. You just have to worry about everyone else in the black Russian class trying to kill you.
Conclusion: A very fun and basic fantasy story. It has the occasional Supernatural element but there's only really prominent towards the end.
There's a couple of songs peppered throughout and a pretty cute wedding scene to boot.
*There was something of a slang terminology floating around the Soviet Union to describe the wealthy Elite and the basic people. The basic people will were referred to as the ''Red Russians'' they were the backbone of the country and they were at various points in their existence glorified Serfs. While the Black Russians made up the government and an occasional group of military men.
And this shouldn't be confused with both the black russian drink or the Ukrainian separatist Army that sprouted up during the revolution.
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