ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Reviews 

THE TALE OF SILYAN – Review by Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin , , , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

The Tale of Silyan is an exquisitely crafted documentary that introduces us to an aging Macedonian potato farmer and the injured stork that he takes under wing. In following their unusual relationsip, filmmaker Tamara Kotevska delves into the economic hardships that plague farmers who want to work their and and maintain their traditional way of life in Northern Macednia, the very region where the filmmaker grew up.

The two principal characters, husband Nicola and his wife Jana, can’t live off what they are able to earn by growing and harvesting potatoes on the land that has belonged to and been farmed by their family for generations. After Jana leaves home to look for higher paying work in Germany, Nicola takes a low wage job at the local garbage dump where he shovels wasted food and discarded luxury – distressing evidence of the harsh difference in the life styles of the haves and have nots.

Nicola misses Jana terribly, but he finds a stork with a broken wing and takes the bird to his farm, where he nurses him back to heath. The stork is a majestic creature and the bond that forms between Nicola and the bird is extraordinary. And, because storks have a large presence in Macedonian traditional folk tales, Kotevska is able to enrich her storytelling so that the film has an almost mythical quality.

The gorgeous cinematography immerses you in the stark beauty of the land in contrasted to the glorious vision of storks soaring overhead. Every frame of the film is a seductive appreciation of the land and the folk who live on it and would love to remain on it and sustain their traditional way of life. The Tale of Silyan is an exquisit and inspiring film.

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for AWFJ.org, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, NY Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).