Whose Is This Song?

The idea of this film is great and more productions should follow its steps of exploring and fitting together the Balkan tiles! Our nations have been separated by barbed wire and self-delusion for very long time - even during the "internationalist" Communism. For decades the world next to our immediate borders has been blackouted. We are well acquainted with the life of USA or Russia, but not of Serbia or Turkey! As result we have forgotten that until 130 years ago we all lived in one and the same country and so we share one way of life, of work and of merriment. This I discovered personally for the first time a few years ago when I first crossed the Border with a sinking stomach!

As a traveler myself, the first-hand-view of this film, a lot of it shot with a hidden camera, looked strikingly familiar! It is a very crude documentary - more like a diary of Adela (the film-maker)'s journey. I think such genre of film-making could have great future if intelligently produced!

However she had higher aims in mind, and I think she failed to achieve those. That resulted in a rather more grave depiction of the Balkans, present and future, than they really are.

The persons which Adela sought in each country were from different social backgrounds - from an educated actor or opera singer (Turkey and Albania) to vulgar rascals in the local pub (as you could conclude from their initial chat on "nowadays girls"; Serbia) to nationalists the biker type (Bulgaria). Clearly neither of those could represent the attitudes of a whole nation towards its neighbours. The author should have looked for some way to make this point. Note, that while outsiders might perceive this documentary as a depiction of the Balkans as a whole, the home audience will look at it as a sequence of separate reflections - one on every neighbour - and take those reflections home. However, they are quite onesided!

The two most embarrassing episodes both happen at the end so they set the grim concluding mood. Although there were moderate and some very intelligent statements (Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia), they are overshadowed by the emotional effect of the shocking. Unfortunately the same happens in our lives and politics as well, and that is precisely how we got the recent resurrection of turmoil.

And my last point: in the beginning one might be inclined to wrongly believe that the "true" history of the song will be relieved to him at some point. This doesn't happen and it leaves a certain degree of disappointment later. Although the pattern becomes somewhat clear for the viewer following the many partial information suggested, it is never explicitly summarised. Presenting the results from a dedicated scientific research in an epilogue would have been an invaluable addendum!

Despite the many drawbacks this film is very important for revealing the true Balkan world to the rest of the world. And to ourselves! I hope more film-making of this sort follows up. However, although it is 100% reality, it is still a tiny bit of a huge colourful mosaic! Please, don't draw your understanding of the Balkans only from it. The best way, of course, is to visit and study those countries for yourself! Believe me, you will enjoy it! :)

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SPOILER: The following might be interesting for you after you have seen the film:

In some later interviews in Bulgarian media Mrs Adela Peeva said that Iranian and Lebanese colleagues who saw the film confirmed that this song also exists in their countries. There is a speculation that it may have been originally a Jewish song carried all over the area by the Jewish migrations - "because it sounds most impressive when performed on a certain type of Jewish flute".

This morning as I drove to work, I heard a recording of Paul Robeson singing during his triumphal return to Carnegie Hall in 1958. He took on the second movement of Dvorak's "New World Symphony," set to words. The song was called "Goin' Home," and had a gospel feel (going home to the Lord). I bring this up because the song moved me near to tears (possibly some hormonal involvement) and because this adaptation of a well-known piece of music to a personal expression and experience reminded me of the film I saw last night, "Whose Song Is This?"

The director, Adela Peeva, got the idea for the film one night when she was having dinner with some friends, all from different Balkan countries. The band in the restaurant started playing a song, and everyone at Peeva's table claimed that the song was from their country. How could this be? Peeva became intrigued with the idea of tracking down the origins of the song, and perhaps using it to start building ties that bind between these painfully divided countries by demonstrating that there is a foundation for a common cultural heritage.

She traveled to Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, and back to Bulgaria. In each location, she heard the song and claims that the song was Bosnian, Greek, etc etc. In most of the countries, it was a love song. In Turkey and Serbia, it inspired films, the first reminiscent of "The Student Prince," the second a peepshow cross between the story of Carmen and a Bollywood film. A number of people claimed to know the women who inspired the songs, even claiming to be related. Other versions of the song carried religious lyrics with jihad written all over them. A few people Peeva interviewed knew a fair amount about music. One said he believed the song to be a centuries old folk song that was probably Turkish.

Peeva played the song for a group of Serbians. She picked the wrong version (Bosnian), however, and they walked out on her and threatened her. The film ends with Peeva talking to her Bulgarian countrymen celebrating an historical battle against the Ottoman Turks. She mentioned that the song might be Turkish. She was threatened with lynching. The film ends with night shots of fireworks, which set a field on fire. Silhouettes of people beating back the flames with tree branches can be see, intercut with drunken revellers apparently oblivious to the dangerous situation behind them. I don't think there could be a better metaphor for the Balkans. Ms. Peeva, in a very simple exercise, painted an indelible and tragic portrait of a hopeless region.

This documentary made me somewhat sad.

It is about a woman who one night with her friends hear a song at a local pub in Bulgaria. They all recognize it, but they can't agree on where it comes from. So, she sets out on a long trip witch take her to Greece, Turkey, Bosnia and back to Bulgaria. She soon discovers that the song is found all over the region.

All claim the song to be theirs. When she tries to convince the people she meets that it is well spread and shared she meets anger and disbelief. She almost gets herself beaten up in a restaurant in Yugoslavia for playing it with "the wrong" lyrics.

At the beginning she thought the melody would unite people, that it would make them see that all the ethnic groups share a legacy. But instead she finds people blinded with hate passed down though generations. The merciless and pointless hatred among different ethnical groups in Balkan becomes very clear in this film.

Who should see this documentary then? Well, anyone interested in Balkan. Anyone who lives or have family in any of these countries.

If you hope there will ever be any real peace in the region.. well, maybe you should not see it.

This is a film that poses a mystery about the origin of a song and also exposes the divisions between the various countries in the Balkans. It turns out that the origin of the song was discovered by Dick Crum, a noted Balkan music and dance ethnologist. He discovered that it was published in a Turkish opera and he had the conductor's score which he gave to the Duquesne University Tamburitzans. Sadly, the score was lost, and Dick is now deceased. He personally related this information to me.

The origin in a composed opera makes perfect sense. At one time Turkey owned or influenced many of the Balkan countries. The Turkish culture and music spread to them, and there was some flow back to Turkey. Each region then personalized the song, especially after they became independent. However, we do not know if the melody was originally folk, or composed for the opera.

Classical music has many examples of folk melodies with unknown origin being borrowed by composers. The reverse also happens where a composed melody is embraced as being folk. An example of this is Dvorak's New World Symphony where the big melody became the "cowboy" hymn "Going Home". So, there is still more mystery!

Probably the most tendentious and disshonest movie I've ever seen. The author has serious and deep personal frustrations and tried to heal them by insencere portraying the people of the Balkans. Only someone who is full of hate can do this. Horror attitude.

To choose an obscure Bosnian version of a song (in Bosnia we sing a normal song, not a religious one - as a Muslim I have never heard it) and take it to Serbia and play it to good Serbian hosts, with the words: This is how Bosnians sing this song - that is pure evil. Trust me.

Part of me feels sorry for this author, because she missed the opportunity to make a wonderful film. But, unfortunately, that was not her intention.

In the end, when I saw that the EU supported the film, I threw up.