Boatmen’s Children

Eugen Šinko / Czechoslovakia / 1961 / 9 min.

synopsis

This documentary, featuring a dramatised narrative, depicts the life of a Danube boatman’s family through the eyes of a young boy who must leave the river to start school. The film explores the emotional contrast between the romance of life on the river and the boy’s first responsibility, which he manages to fulfil thanks to the care of his parents and the boatmen’s community. At the same time, it portrays the work of the boatmen and dock workers and their caring wives. The piece is shot as a silent film; the soundtrack interweaves ambient sounds (the horns of boats) with a captivating musical motif (the central melody being The Exodus Theme by Ernest Gold from Otto Preminger’s Jewish drama Exodus). The film was created as a second-year documentary exercise. In 1964, the director returned to the subject and, in a professional setting, made a widescreen remake titled Posledná plavba (The Last Voyage), which follows the ship’s journey all the way to the Black Sea. While still a student at FAMU, he had already produced a short feature film on the theme of river boatmen, Majstr alkohol (Master Alcohol, 1962).

biography

Eugen Šinko (1934–2014) studied film directing (1959–1963, graduating in 1964); he made various educational, instructional, training and social documentaries for the Popular Science and Documentary Film Studios in Bratislava. In the late 1960s, he also worked on television drama productions.