Ritam i Zvuk - 1955
ABOUT THE FILM : Ritam i Zvuk
Kinoteka na MakedonijaRhythm and Sound
Year: 1955
In the superb Macedonian countryside filmed in colour, men and women plant rice, harvest with peace and joy. A vibrant ode to nature rings out. The commentary emphatically praises the simple joys of a life punctuated by the seasons and dances passed down through the history of the Macedonian people. Each traditional dance is performed with beauty and precision. The clarinet, mandolin and violin lead the women’s farandoles and the men’s circle dances.
The movements have special meaning. The Tikwesh springs like a warrior charge, the Rusalli chases away evil spirits using a well-sharpened sabre. The more ludicrous ‘rabbit dance’ mimics a hunting scene. With Popov’s classic direction, the film gives a stylized panorama of Macedonian folk culture. An ethnological lyricism that is difficult to interpret.
Nationality: Macedonian
Length: 19' 26"
Genre: documentary
Sound: sound
Original elements: colour
Producer: Vardar Films
Original language: Macedonian
A BRIEF HISTORY : Ritam i Zvuk
This Trajce Popov film aesthetizes Macedonian folklore with lyricism, while paying a discreet homage to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Trajce Popov (1923-2007) produced a number of documentary films in Macedonia, but also in Albania and Bulgaria. Macedonia was his preferred location, where he shot over a hundred films that earned him many Yugoslavian awards and honours over the course of his career, including the “11 October” and “13 November” prizes.
After World War II, Vardar Macedonia became a federated Republic of the new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Under communist rule but autonomous, Yugoslavian Macedonia was able to cultivate the Macedonian identity for the first time in its history. All the more so that it took in the Aegean Macedonian populations that had fled the Greek civil war between 1945 and 1948.
In keeping with this approach, the film emanates great nostalgia (tradition, the precious balance of the community), but also a real enthusiasm for socialist fraternity. “These dances are a vestige of the past, exclaims the voice-off. But all that is a thing of the past for the people of this country.” The camera lingers on the Wheel Dance that began during the opening ceremonies. The men performed this dance back when they had to go find bread far from their village.
At this precise moment, a procession interrupts the dance. Two flags lead the march. The first is red, the second flies the colours of Yugoslavia. In an umpteenth farandole, the men and women finally mix, dancing together towards a glorious future. True poetry emanates from Popov’s work, with his flare for the dramatic that marked several generations of Macedonian film directors.
Ritam i Zvuk is more than just an ethnographic film. It praises stoicism and virtue, the living power of dance and community life. It resounds like a panegyric of the Macedonian people and their memory in dance.
