This is one of Polish's best films, an uneven but texturally interesting ramble though foreign cultural and geographic terrain, all examined with a fresh eye.

Good intentions will only get you so far.

While Nona does eventually reward audience members with stark drama grounded in a daily nightmare, it risks cheating itself of its full impact, pretending for most of its running time to be a fairytale it certainly is not.

Nona flies by in an hour and a half but somehow manages to encapsulate so much emotional truth and heartbreaking beauty over its short runtime. I hope that people go out and see it on the big screen...