By following a group of people who occupy the edge of their society, who seem to be vanishing as soon as they appear, David Zellnik manages to locate something unmistakably and magically central about how people navigate away from disaffection to faith, alienation to belonging, isolation to love. Through a complex interplay of gently wrought character development and stikingly poignant symbolism, "The Udmurts" is a funny and provocative meditation on how the harder we try to escape our fate, the closer we end up to it, yet by embracing that fate on our own terms it becomes our destiny.
By following a group of people who occupy the edge of their society, who seem to be vanishing as soon as they appear, David Zellnik manages to locate something unmistakably and magically central about how people navigate away from disaffection to faith, alienation to belonging, isolation to love. Through a complex interplay of gently wrought character development and stikingly poignant symbolism, "The Udmurts" is a funny and provocative meditation on how the harder we try to escape our fate, the closer we end up to it, yet by embracing that fate on our own terms it becomes our destiny.