I saw the movie "Night Watch" last night. It was pretty terrible; I must admit. Visually, it had some interesting effects... it was probably the first movie out of Russia to use "matrix" type stop-motion digital cinematograpy. There were some interesting effects with the subtitles too. (obiously meant for foreign consumption)

On the other hand, I hate Mtv editing, and the plot was practically incoherent. That said, the movie raises interesting possibilities. It utilized Russian... as well as medieval Greek mythos. This is a part of history that is vastly underserved. The possibilities are boundless as from Syria all the way to Novgorod, there is something of a superculture (insofar as it spans several other cultures.. but I think its super too) that can be mined for cohesive cultural and ideological frameworks. These can, of course, be used to examine the human questions that any other culturally extroverted society explores.. Kurosawa in Japan for example.

The movie used a lot of imagery from Russian folklore.. the bird turning into the woman... and the witch at the beginning was clearly a Baba Yaga archetype (I was waiting for the chicken legs). The Byzantine references to curses on virginal women were also interesting.

I wish someone (with more skill at storytelling) would take up these stories and make them relevant again. Perhaps Nikita Mikhailkov (by the way... I would highly recommend his movie "Burnt By the Sun"... magical realism turned against Stalinism!). There must be SOMEONE out there with enough vision and skill...