While the Fern Flowers (Season 1)

"While the Fern Flowers" (2012) is a Russian comedy-fantasy you can watch online on iFILM — a Moscow tabloid journalist dropped into Slavic folk magic on the eve of Ivan Kupala night.

Kirill Andreyev, played by Alexander Petrov, writes stories about ghosts and UFOs for a paper nobody takes seriously. Then a magic amulet dumps him in the Altai mountains — ancient cedar forests, shapeshifters, and woodland spirits that have no patience for skeptics. He has his sister Sasha and a handful of random companions, and Ivan Kupala night — the one night in Slavic legend when the fern blooms and things get genuinely strange — is only days away. Directed by Yevgeny Bedarev, with Svetlana Sukhanova and Tatyana Orlova in supporting roles.

Warm and slightly naive, in the best sense — a city person discovering that the old stories were real all along. Stream "While the Fern Flowers" (2012) online on iFILM.