SAMPO

Aleksandr Ptushko is an unsung master of classic fantasy cinema. You can put him in the same breath as Mario Bava and Ray Harryhausen for crafty, immersive worldbuilding.

Ptushko’s ravishing fantasy SAMPO is based on the Finnish national epic “Kalevala”. We have the surreal story of a sinister witch who covets the Sampo: a magical, rainbow-colored mill producing endless salt, grain and gold. When the hero Lemminkäinen intervenes, the witch literally steals the sun and plunges the world into darkness. Shot like its predecessor ILYA MUROMETS in striking CinemaScope, SAMPO has some of Ptushko’s very best imagery. Released in the U.S. in a dubbed, butchered version as THE DAY THE EARTH FROZE (and later mocked on MST3K), SAMPO has been beautifully restored by the Finnish National Audiovisual Institute.