Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Tale Of Silyan (2025) Film Review
Man, myth and the perils of the modern world are woven together in the latest beguiling documentary from Tamara Kotevska. The North Macedonian director previously showed her aptitude for storytelling with the double Oscar-nominated beekeeping film Honeyland and she again finds fertile ground when considering the symbiosis between humans and the natural world and the pressures both are coming under.
According to 17th century folklore, Silyan the stork was once a farmer’s son, cursed by his father for wanting to escape his life of toil, and transformed into a bird that was forced to migrate back and forth in search of a home. Kotevska leans into the metaphor with the full force of a Disney film – but it is hardly inappropriate given the state of many modern farming communities who find their livelihoods dwindling and their younger family members forced to fly the nest in a bid to provide for their own children.
That’s exactly the position 60-year-old Nikola finds himself in when we meet him, working his land alongside his wife Jana, with Jean Dakar’s gently observational camera capturing the warm and loose energy between them that sings with old love. The other residents of the village of Češinovo that Kotevska has her eye on are the white storks, whose large nests are seen perching in precarious spots. Dakar’s absorbing nature photography captures them as they feed their chicks and go about their business with their distinctive clattering call frequently responded to by the folk-music inflected score by John Wilson Davies and HunOuk Park.
Kotevska keeps her focus on the family as the wider world intrudes. The community is facing a squeeze at the market, as traders refuse to pay what they used to and, as Nikola after Jana’s daughter, husband and granddaughter leave to find work in Germany, it’s not long before Jana is being asked to follow along to help with childcare. In the second half of the film, we stay with Nikola, who finds himself working at the local dump – the storks, to their peril, migrating with the tractors now that they are no longer ploughing the land. It’s there that he finds an injured bird and the bond between them becomes Kotevska’s focus, although there’s also plenty of mileage watching him get to grips with living on his own and generally sharing his woes and triumphs with his best mate Ilija, who appears to be in a similar position.
The director employs a sturdy mythical backbone of storytelling but it’s the emotional heart provided by Nikola and his family that are the real magic touch.
Reviewed on: 01 Sep 2025
