Manes

At a bend of the river that begins in the stinking Strygov swamps, the village of Gryvy grew up. And it’s not some rundown hamlet of three houses. There’s a post office there, a shop, a school, and a local history museum. Правда, there are no cemeteries. There used to be a collective farm once, but either it couldn’t survive perestroika, or maybe the Gryvy people themselves didn’t want to “rebuild” along with the new, alien world—changing together with it… who knows?

Life in the village flows slowly, as the brown waters of the river that gave the village its name do. And the local officer—“an eternal captain” Velesnitsky—drifts along with the same current of routine, counting down the days until retirement.

But at the end of summer, life tips over—something breaks through a crack in reality. Children’s tales gain flesh. And the whispers of the old women become more тревожні, the weather becomes more capricious, nature more savage, and the crooked shadows in the corners of cottages grow thicker and more imposing. And to top it all off, the teenage daughter falls onto the local officer’s lot like snow out of nowhere, when in Gryvy it becomes unsafe even for locals. And when everything slips out of control, a dilemma will stand before Velesnitsky: act according to protocol, or resort to the cruelest weapon God has—Father Umat.