Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari

A few weeks ago, I watched a Russian film by Aleksei Fedorchenko – “Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari” (Russian: Небесные жёны луговых мари, /nʲɪˈbʲesnɨje ʐɨˈnɨ lʊɡɐˈvɨx ˈmarʲɪ/; Meadow Mari: Олык марий пылвомыш вате-влак, /ˈolɤk ˈmarij pɤlˈβomɤʃ βaˈteβlak/; Polish: “Niebiańskie żony łąkowych Maryjczyków”).

The Maris are an ethnic minority of Russia and have an autonomous republic on their own: the Mari El Republic. They are Volga Finns, like the Mordvins; there are distinguished two subgroups of Maris: the Hill (Western) and the Meadow (Eastern) Mari; those are also names of two standardized dialects of the Mari language.

The Meadow Maris are an unique phonomenon for entire Europe: they are called the last Pagans of Europe, however, it is a small exaggeration, because there are also other Pagan groups with some degree of continuity of their religion, but they are usually much smaller. According to the national survey of 2012, 6% of the population of the Mari El Republic are adherents of politheistic Native Mari religion, based on worship of forces of nature, but some estimations say that the majority of ethnic Maris practice the old beliefs in some way, often alongside their nominal Orthodox Christianity.

The film, created in surrelistic convention and based on Mari legends, tells us story about mythical world of Pagan believes, which resembles to me the “Game of Thrones”. If someone wants the journey to the lost world of our ancestors, the films will give them what they want; I will reveal only that the first scene involves a redhead girl praying to a birch.