Then comes the evening

As a child, I went through the forest to the hill where the grandmas live and looked after the sheep with them. It was always interesting for me to imagine what they were thinking about as they spent the whole day in silence on the meadow with their flock.

The visualization of the images I remember from my childhood was the starting point for making this film. It was important for me to reveal and record small, and even imperceptible, details of the daily lives of humble people and their connection to nature. The paintings and literature of realism had a great influence and encouraged me to make a story without narration, to capture the atmosphere and everyday life without action. In the artworks of realists, the focus was not on big historical and religious scenes, but an ordinary man and his life. I used such aestheticization in the shots because I wanted to frame their lives like a painting. Work on the land is hard, but the common man has peace of soul and a clear conscience when he lays to bed. The still lifes appear through the film to emphasize the vanitas theme, which indicates the transience, the decay of the material.

I also wanted to preserve from oblivion the rituals and chants that are part of my cultural identity. We do something in the field all year round and then the storm comes and we panic because in one evening all of that work can disappear. Then we pray to God and practice those rituals to appease the wrath of nature.

The film is designed as a triptych. The beginning is the green phase with impressionistic colors. The middle is gray - the moment when the storm starts. In the end, the film reaches maturity - the orange phase, as the colors saturate.