White cherry blossoms descend from the sky just as a tragedy is about to change the course of a uniquely religious fishing community on the shores of Lake Peipsi, the body of water that separates Estonia from Russia. Relatively commonplace as that description may read, writer-director Marko Raat’s “8 Views of Lake Biwa” is closer to a dreamlike folktale — set sometime during the 20th century — than to pastoral realism.
For starters, Raat took the title, along with the names for each segment the narrative is divided into, from a series of centuries-old Japanese paintings (in turn inspired by ancient Chinese art) depicting scenic views from distinct points
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