Macedonian Movies

Stirred by the Decree of Equality of all Citizens of the Ottoman Empire the Master, decides for the first time to build a church on the same level as the mosques. The Bey, the local power lord, disregards the Sultan. He arrests and then requests of the Master-builder to lower the church to the usual position. The Priest for fear of the Bey’s reprisal, requests of the Master to stop building. He refuses. Finally the Master is excommunicated. The Master is left alone with his family to continue building the church. After the attempt of the villagers to tear down the church and after selling his house to pay the necessary debts. Master continues painting the frescos with his son Voydan and through tranquility teaches his son about spirituality, goodness and ethics – helping him to come out of puberty as a mature man. The Bey returns on Forgiveness Day with an ultimatum to the Master – his head or his church. The Master is decided – he puts his head to be cut off immediately joined by his wife Rumena, Voydan and all the other villagers. The Bey is left with no alternative but to admit defeat: he grants the Master his life and the church and the villagers all extend forgiveness to each other.

Naip, a.k.a. Naim Veliku after 42 years, traumatized by life, returns to his native place, in his home that he longed for 4 decades. He was sentenced to death twice, but as destiny had it, he is alive. One letter in his name saved him from being killed, even though he was first on the execution list. He was sentenced to death during the regime of former Yugoslavia, because as an officer of the Yugoslavian army he was accused of deserting the military and fleeing to Albania. He was treated as e suspect in Albania as well, typical treatment of Albanians who fled the violence of the “Informbiro” in Yugoslavia. He spent ten years in different prisons in Albania but managed to save himself from the death penalty. At 80 years of age he returns to his home in the village of Orkoc in the Kumanovo region, that has been abandoned by all residents. Veliu had no problem building a small house and he now lives alone, with fond memories of his youth.

A landlady asks her tenant a seemingly innocent favor – to drop off her young female friend and her little daughter somewhere in the city. The tenant is unwillingly involved in a dubious act as he realizes that the young woman is leaving her daughter in an orphanage.

One seven storey building stands near the centre of the small town of Tetovo, located in the west part of Macedonia, as a “border” between one part of the city where Macedonian population lives and the other where Albanian population lives. In the building, like in a beehive live Albanians, Macedonians, Gypsies, Romanians, Hungarians, Serbs and Bosniaks. They live in the same building for years and they are all in some kind of silent conflict with each other, but still they live common live as neibourghs.

Mangava Disco Punk (in Romany meaning I love disco punk) is the only punk rock band in the famous Macedonian gypsy ghetto “Shutka”. Their frontman Elvis, unsuccessfully tries to conquer the heart of the waitress from the local restaurant. His father kicks him out of home. Elvis, vicious from the complete rejection of the society, experienced enlightenment in the form of a psychedelic nightmare where Elvis Presley appears as a local gypsy taxi driver, and Yul Brynner’s statue on the main square