Soil and wings
Directed by: Stefan Malešević
Written by: Stefan Malešević, Viktor Trajanovski
Cinematography: Stefan Malešević
Editing: Jelena Maksimović, Stefan Malešević
Music: Branislav Jovančević
Producers: Jelena Angelovski, Ivana Šekutkoska
Production: Obol film, Minimal Kolektiv
Festivals and awards: ZagrebDox, Beldocs – the best film in the Serbian competitive program, editing award, best camera award.
In a North-Macedonian village called Kanatlar, Ayten and Erdoğan raise their family, balancing the ancient Bektashi-dervish doctrine with the challenges of modern life and economy. This tobacco-growing valley is home to a few hundred Turks of the Bektashi Sufi order, an 800-year-old branch of Islam that teaches progressive ideas, even by today’s standards. They believe everyone and everything is equal, which gives women freedom and power that many other Muslims find blasphemous. Ayten and Erdoğan love each other deeply, but this love is mostly shown through their work for the family. This hard- working couple shows gender equality blooming where you would least expect it – in a rural community of Muslims devoted to religion, family and tradition in one of the poorest regions of the Balkans.
Stefan Malešević is a filmmaker and film curator from Serbia, currently living in the Netherlands. He studied filmmaking at the film.factory academy in Sarajevo, under the mentorship of Béla Tarr. His documentary film Gora (2016) screened at various international film festivals, including Visions du Réel. His first fiction feature film Mamonga (2019) premiered in Karlovy Vary, screened at New Horizons in Wroclaw, Marrakech International Film Festival and many other international film festivals. He has been a member of the European Film Academy since 2019 and has worked as the Head of Cinema in the cultural centre De Balie, Amsterdam since 2021.