Spring in Carpathian Ruthenia

director: Karol Plicka

original title: Jaro na Podkarpatské Rusi

year: 1929

running time: 10 min.

synopsis

An ethnographic study of Easter celebrations offers a poetic cameo of rural architecture and springtime customs in the mountains. Karol Plicka's film highlights ancient Slavic folk costumes as a Carpathian village bursts to life in a three-day joyful festivity. Children's carefree games are intercut with the solemn rites of Easter, ancient wooden churches and herds of sheep according to the laws of montage by Alexander Hackenschmied. Some sequences of this film which literally sings are also featured in Plicka's masterpiece The Earth Sings (1933). This silent film is so evocative one can hear the sound of the sheepherder's overtone flute – the fujara.

Slovak Institute is the partner of the section Translucent Being: Karol Plicka.

biography

Karol Plicka (1894–1987) was a famous Slovak-Czech photographer, folklorist, filmmaker and collector of moments, ethnographer, cameraman, director, music scientist and pedagogue, violin virtuoso and professor, co-founder of the Prague FAMU film school (1946), admirer of nature and traditional folk work, and admirer of architecture and folk crafts. Plicka’s films have been awarded at festivals in Italy (Florence, Venice) and his photography books and songbooks are still collectible today. Karol Plicka was a personality who still inspires and motivates enthusiasm for the culture of our ancestors.

more about film

director:	Karol Plicka
script:	Karol Plicka

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