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For the happy fans of Macedonia's internationally acclaimed film Director, Milco Mancevski (Before the Rain, 1995, and Dust, 2001), you'll be glad to know that Mancevski brought out his newest film last year. Shadows based in Skopje, explores ties between folklore, death, the past and the present, in a suspenseful and alluring thriller.  Thankfully, Mancevski has also employed his eye for cinematography, colour, movement and sound, towards promoting Macedonia as the culturally rich destination that it is, without all the usual overblown hype that is hard for most foreigners to swallow. To see his magnificent ad as shown on CNN, which finally places Macedonia as an equal among the many other great ads for top tourist destinations, go to www.macedonia-timeless.com. The website provides hundreds of links in a simple format to help you find out about, and get about, the country.
If you missed the Michael Palin series on New Europe broadcast last year on BBC, then go to www.palinstravels.co.uk/book-4237 to read the book, or order the documentary. And yes, that is yours truly, the first edition of the Bradt Guide to Macedonia, that Palin is reading on the boat on Ohrid lake in the book photo and in the documentary. I was lucky enough to catch up with him in Istria later after shooting (film!) in 2006, and although he is a remarkably unassuming character, he was quickly recognised and swamped by Yugoslav well-wishers who are all huge fans of the Monty Python series.
Another excellent documentary aired this January on Sky was Edward Lear: An Exile in Paradise, following Edward Lear's travels from Greece through Monastir (Bitola), Prilep and Uskub (Skopje) to Albania in 1848. Based on Lear's travellogue, republished by Century in 1988, documentarist Robert Horne revisits Lear's descriptions and landscape paintings. Better known today for his nonsense poetry and sketches than for his oil paintings, it is fascinating nonetheless to see renditions that Lear brushed of Macedonia in 1848, and how they compare to today. To order the three one hour documentaries go to www.electricsky.com.
Finally, out in April this year is Clare Mulley's biography Eglantyne Jebb: The Woman who Saved the Children OneWorld Publishers, www.claremulley.com. Jebb visited Macedonia for the first time in 1913 between the first and second Balkan Wars in order to deliver aid from the Macedonian Relief Fund. Horrified by the atrocities of war in Macedonia, and particularly on the suffering inflicted on orphans left to die, Jebb went on to campaign for children's rights and set up Save the Children in 1919. The book, which dedicates a whole chapter to Jebb's time in Macedonia, has come out to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of Save the Children, and all book proceeds go to Save the Children.
Experience Macedonia - many famous figures have. |
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