Manaki A Story in Pictures

The film incorporates the photographic work of Janaki and Milton Manaki, the first Balkan cinematographers. The Manaki brothers have been mythologized over the years, and additional attributions to their legacy have been made in order to further eulogize their undisputed importance. However, this tendency to add new and unconfirmed information is unnecessary and harmful, since their legacy is already of great cultural value not only to Macedonia but also in the wider Balkan context. For this reason, each and every fact and opinion presented in the film Manaki – A Story in Pictures has been carefully researched and reconfirmed with presented artefacts. The story is told through original documentary photographs and follows the brothers as they open their first professional studio in 1898 in Iannina and later move to Bitola, now known as the city of the Manaki brothers.