Jakubisko's penchant for turning naturalistic elements into exotica finds a home in this reworking of a tale by the Brothers Grimm. Guilietta Masina is marvelously cast as Mother Holle, the "Feather Fairy," in whose enchanted realm light is filtered through hard blue ice but all else is as laughingly soft as a giant feather-filled duvet. Mother Holle adopts a young mortal, Jakob, whom she has saved from the clutches of her grim half-sister, Death, and teaches him to conjure up and observe the world in her crystal ball (to be, one might say, a filmmaker). All too soon, Jakob is tempted to enter the reality he sees. The real fairy tale here is in the filmmaking, every frame of which evokes a "floating, gravity defying freedom," as critic Henry Sheehan has noted. "Jakubisko disdains ordinary special effects in favor of a more dramatically...and emotionally satisfying personalization of perspective. It's a style which promotes a vicarious, rather than spectacular, thrill...A fairy tale for all ages." (Hollywood Reporter)