----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Thank you for the review of Mikhalkov's Close to Eden. It is a remarkable and unique film, which leapt instantly onto my Lifetime Top Ten list last year because of its unforgettable setting and photography, and its completeness, universality, and humor. However, both prof jahiel and PSYCPAT *mistakenly* see the dinner'd sheep as skinned alive. No -- in a brief, wordless scene giving us one of the most moving homages to life on the land ever filmed, we watch Gombo (the young dad) kill a sheep for dinner in the traditional Mongolian way, in honor of their Russian houseguest. Cradling the sheep in his lap, Gombo feels with his fingertip for the breastbone, then painlessly pierces the skin there with a sharp knife, reaches one hand inside, and grips the heart to still it-- while placing his other hand around the sheep's snout to muffle its single dying cough. Gombo murders the sheep bloodlessly and soundlessly, without a single violent movement. There is no tension or struggle. The ending tableau looks like a pieta'. Only after he is certain the sheep is dead does Gombo give it to his wife to dress (skin, clean, and butcher). Moments later the fresh meat is in the stewpot. The family's respect for the sheep, and for their houseguest, builds all the way through. For this scene, as well as for the rest of this magnificent film, Close to Eden deserves a much wider audience. Bet MacArthur Arts Analysis Inst Cambridge MA USA