Groundbreaking Oscar-Nominated Director Returns With a Fantastic Documentary About a Man and His Stork

In 2019, Tamara Kotevska made her feature directing debut alongside Lujubomir Stefanov with the stunning documentary, Honeyland. This movie from North Macedonia made history by becoming the first film ever to get nominated in both the Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film categories at the Academy Awards — a great example that the best docs of the year shouldn’t just be relegated to their one category.

Honeyland told the story of Hatidže Muratova, a Macedonian beekeeper whose way of life is changed when neighbors move in, ignore the old ways of how beekeeping should work, and irrevocably alter Hatidže’s way of life. It told a story of how modernity and selfishness, especially in the case of smaller ecosystems, can alter or destroy important resources. With her latest film, The Tale of Silyan, Kotevska once again broaches these topics with another fantastic, engrossing look at those who live off the land in North Macedonia.

‘The Tale of Silyan’ Mixes Folktales With a Farmer’s Struggle

The Tale of Silyan centers primarily on Nikola, a North Macedonian farmer who is struggling with the world changing around him. Like many in the area, Nikola can grow crops, yet there isn’t anyone to buy them. After a great harvest, Nikola and his family find themselves at a farmer’s market with plenty of stock, but nothing to do with it. Amongst other crops, they’re stuck with tons of unsold potatoes, and tobacco farmers in the area find that their source of income isn’t selling for as much as they used to. As a result, many in the area are moving on to new jobs or leaving Macedonia altogether — including Nikola’s own son.

Now, at the age of 60 and after 45 years as a farmer, Nikola finds himself at a crossroads in his life. The rest of his family, including his wife, leaves for Germany to try and find a better life, while Nikola stays home to try and sell their farm land. Struggling to make ends meet, Nikola takes a job as a landfill attendant, where he finds an injured stork. In fact, white storks are everywhere in this part of Macedonia, as their squawking is ever-present, always looking over the town from overhead. With no one else at home, Nikola takes this stork home and begins to nurse it back to health.

Nikola names the stork Silyan, after a Macedonian folktale about a father who cursed his son, which turned him into a stork. The stork left home, desperate to return, but unable to due to his situation. It’s a fitting name, considering the frustration Nikola has over his son, who left for a better life, for whom he even built a house next to his own. As Nikola struggles with this new phase of his life, he finds comfort in this unexpected guest in his home.

‘The Tale of Silyan’ Tells a Story About the World’s Shifting Dynamics

While Honeyland had more of a sense of urgency to it, as we watched the bee population quickly start to diminish, The Tale of Silyan takes its time with Nikola grappling with the change in his life. Even though he seems to be a mostly content man, the world around him is slipping away at a rapid pace, and tragedy seems to be everywhere. The land he’s tilled for decades is now almost useless, his family has moved on to better opportunities, and at one point, Nikola matter-of-factly mentions how one of his neighbors hung himself in his house.

Yet The Tale of Silyan is also a fascinating look at the little guy fighting against unjust changes that leave them out in the cold. The farmers picket against the government’s changes, blocking roads and fighting the power the best they can. Yet ultimately, the farmers are the ones left in the lurch, unsure of how to proceed. Even though this is a story occurring thousands of miles away, it’s hard not to understand the plight of these farmers and see a similarity to our own world, which demands that people must be ready to alter their lives at a moment’s notice simply to survive another day. You can either give in and try something new, like Nikola taking on a new job at the landfill, or you can end up like Nikola’s neighbor, who took another way out.

Even the stork population in Macedonia is seemingly feeling the impact of a changing world. While they might’ve been able to eat off the land that these farmers worked so hard on, Nikola finds them picking over scraps of trash in the landfill, which is scattered with the carcasses of deceased storks that aren’t as lucky to have someone like Nikola taking care of them. Yet with this bond that grows between Nikola and Silyan, we see just how much man and nature need each other, a symbiotic relationship that desperately needs the other that has been thrown out of whack.

Tamara Kotevska Once Again Proves To Be a Stunning Director With ‘The Tale of Silyan’

Kotevska’s approach to Nikola’s story is both beautifully reserved and impeccably structured. Kotevska allows Nikola’s tale the time to breathe, as she watches what his day-to-day life is like, discovering his new way of life, FaceTiming his family in Germany, and taking care of his new storm friend. But much like Honeyland, Kotevska is brilliantly able to piece a compelling and moving narrative out of these fragments, a film that is almost so engrossing that it could’ve easily been a restrained piece of fiction. Kotevska is a fly on Nikola’s wall, and it’s phenomenal how she captures the life of this former farmer who doesn’t know where life will take him next.

Between Honeyland and The Tale of Silyan, Kotevska has proven herself to be a remarkable filmmaker who can craft masterful stories through her subdued approach to documentary filmmaking. Kotevska isn’t just telling a story of a farmer in a foreign land; she’s constructing a story that we can all relate to in our current world, in one of the finest documentaries you’ll see all year.

The Tale of Silyan is now playing in select theaters.