A Song about Carpathian Ruthenia

Jiří Weiss / Czechoslovakia / 1937 / 11 min.

synopsis

There is no end to the mountains, the mists, the ancestral forests, where the wood perishes, where shadow has the scent of death... Vladimír Šmeral's haunting commentary accompanies the cinematography of Václav Hanuš – showing deep, impenetrable mists. In both words and images, Carpathian Ruthenia is lyrical and wild, a country of myth and poetry. These epithets define both the natural setting and the cinematography, featuring a dynamic subjective camera scene of woodmen on a raft, while the Sabbath celebrations of local Jews have an almost oriental feel. This poetic travelogue by Jiří Weiss is a late blossom of the avant-garde, with the shadow of the new war already looming.