THE FILM IS IN ESTONIAN, WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
SYNOPSIS
On the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples originated a singing tradition of mysterious power called the Regilaul. These songs are the roots of Estonia’s renowned singing culture. Based on the continuous repetition of eight-syllable verses, they produce a haunting sound able to connect the fleeting present with the eternal circle of life. Against the stunning setting of modern Estonia, this film explores how Regi songs still fire the imagination today, weaving together people and nature through song.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
My earlier films The Saltmen of Tibet and Ässhäk – Tales from the Sahara show traditional peoples proudly maintaining their archaic cultures and ways of life. As I made these films I was also interested in philosophies that had preceded institutionalised religions, as are manifest in such forms as pre-Buddhist Tibetan rituals or pre-Islamic Tuaregic practices. Both these cultures are closely connected to and respectful of nature. The depicted nomads still pass on their customs orally performing them through a cappella singing, epic poetry, legends and traditional ways of everyday life. Worldwide such phenomena are increasingly threatened with extinction.
To my surprise I discovered parallels to my main topics of interest in the neighbouring country of modern Estonia. In Regilaul we encounter a powerful will to survive arising from personal, deeply rooted customs and a tradition of singing. The exploration of the revival of this culture of singing and its place in today's everyday life, which extends to the musical cycles of composer Veljo Tormis that were created on the basis of this cultural heritage of ancient songs, provides a vital and stimulating perspective of questions about cultural identity in an age in which our differences are melting away as fast as our glaciers.
For centuries the history of Estonia was shaped by foreign domination and oppression. The return to their own voices, to a simple song, was an important factor for the Estonians in regaining liberty for their nation, a country with a population of almost one million. In 1988 the songs that 300,000 people sang in a demonstration at Tallinn Song Festival Grounds included the Estonian national anthem, which had been forbidden under Soviet domination. After a predominantly peaceful liberation process known as the "Singing Revolution" Estonia regained its sovereignty in August 1991. Since then it has become a member of the European Union.
When the 14th Dalai Lama visited Tallinn in August 2011 he expressed his respectful appreciation of the Estonian people for their strength and determination in fighting for liberty and establishing democracy after a long period of authoritarian Communist domination. The success of the relatively small Estonian population in regaining their sovereignty is an encouraging example for other peoples whose territorial self-determination and cultural identity are threatened.
Regilaul is a song form of peculiar strength. The repetitions of the eight-syllable verses and the changes are produced by the repetitions create a certain pull that leads to recognizing the inner self. The songs are not only joyful and seem to be filled with the light and vastness of the Far North, but they are also deep, mysterious and multilayered like the ancient moor landscapes thousands of years old. It is not always possible to reconstrue the knowledge concealed within these songs, not even through the intensive folkloric research conducted in Estonia. Sometimes the song texts are bizarre and make us wonder with their "different way of looking at the world", as Nietzsche described in Beyond Good and Evil concerning the philosophers of the Ural-Altaic language region. When dealing with Regilaul and its Finno-Ugric background, broader horizons open up: although the geography of its own origins is still largely undefined, historical references seem to point to a range extending even to regions far to the east.
When I began to explore this subject a world opened up to me that was challenging to enter. As described by one of the female protagonists, it resembles a treasure chest that is only to be opened with the utmost care. In Estonia folksongs are not harmless, old-fashioned relics handed down from the past; but rather they embody an abundance of rich meanings, a kind of explosive power and the wondrous ability to transform trauma and encourage the development of personal and collective identities.
Distributor:
Rühm +0
Director:
Ulrika Koch
Links:
Official site
