Project Description
A documentary film
The film is an extract from the Gypsies’ way of living. The theme of the film deals with the contrasts of the contemporary urban processes. Also, the film expresses a many-sided iconography as a source for incarnation of the romantic comprehension of life, without any obstacles. This poetic vision on the life of the last nomads is shot in the authentic milieu of Gypsies’ camp shortly before the celebration of their greatest holiday. An atavistic characteristics of their beliefs are: the ritual bathing, as a symbol of body&soul purifying; then, the mystery of childbirth and the life desire, without restraints, attack upon the audiences’ senses, never leaving them indifferent.
Category: Documentary
Color, sound, 35 mm.
Length: 460 m.
Duration: 16 min.
Production: “Vardar Film” – Skopje
Director: Stole Popov
Screenplay: Ante Popovski
Camerman: Misho Samoilovski
Editor: Dimitar Grbevski
Sound: Gligor Pakovski
Sound Editor: Gligor Pakovski
Ass. Camerman: Vladimir Samoilovski
Music Selection: Stole Popov
Unit Manager: Risto Teofilovski – Ridgeway
1979 FYDSF, Belgrade, “Golden Medal Belgrade” for best camera / Misho Samoilovski
1979 IFF, Oberhausen, Grand Prix
1979 IFF, Melbourne, Special Jury Award “Silver Boomerang”
1979 IFF, Leipzig, Special Jury Award
1979 Balkan Film Festival, Ljubljana, Grand Prix,
1980 IFF, London, Special Diploma
1980 Los Angeles, Nomination for “Oscar” Academy Award, among the five best documentary films
Ottawa, Best World Selection (top 3)
Watch on Youtube
Here you can see the whole documentary film “DAE(Mother)” by the Director Stole Popov. This movie is the HD digital version of the original film which was released in honor of the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, by the Macedonia’s Cinematheque and it is a part of the DVD collection with seven digitally remastered films – work of art of the prominent director, Stole Popov.
Popov comes from a filmmaking family. His father, Trajce Popov, was one of the pioneers of filmmaking in Macedonia (Iordanova 2006, p. 208). Despite his bond with middle-class Macedonian-Slavic nationality, with Gypsy Magic Popov did not enter totally unknown artistic/ethnographic territory. Almost two decades earlier, in 1979, Popov had made Dae/Gypsy Birth—short experimental documentary about a Roma clan celebrating the birth of a newborn baby.
Both the European art film festival scene and Hollywood found Dae/Gypsy Birth a magnificent piece of filmmaking. Besides the official recognition throughout former Yugoslavian and European film circles, in 1980, Gypsy Birth was the official Yugoslav nominee for an Academy Award. Moreover, the way that Popov recorded the Romani celebration of St George’s10 day in Gypsy Birth had a strong impact on Kusturica. According to Iordanova (2006, p. 209), Kusturica staged and filmed the key scene in his Time of the Gypsies on the ‘St George Day Celebration’, directly nspired by the way that Popov recorded it in his multi-awarded documentary.
