With the arrival of spring, the Hutsul shepherds of the Carpathian Mountains head for the hillside meadows to tend their flocks until the cold returns. They spend all summer on the meadows, called polonynas, eating boiled cheese as they watch over their sheep.
But this old tradition is fast dying out in the modern world, as the new generation shuns the ancient task of shepherding.
So a new feature-length documentary about Hutsul traditions entitled “The Living Fire” (“Zhyva Vatra”) might soon be the only way to get a glimpse of this old way of life.
The movie is finally coming to general release in cinemas after two years of touring movie festivals. The film has already won several awards, including two special jury prizes at the Odesa International Film Festival and the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Bound by tradition, the remaining Hutsul shepherds still dress in folk clothing on holidays, wash themselves in metal tubs, and play music on pipes and the alpine horn, the trembita. To entertain themselves in the mountains, shepherds sing traditional songs in their dialect language, which is hard to understand even for Ukrainian speakers. Still, the Hutsul villagers’ modern life now differs greatly from the lives of their ancestors, and the profession of shepherding is almost extinct in the Carpathians.
The movie’s director, Ostap Kostyuk, worked on the film for four years, and during the first three years of production his team traveled to the Carpathian Mountains at their own expense. In the fourth year, the National Movie Agency supported the film, covering expenses from the state budget.
“Your movie is really magnificent, I was amazed,” the head of National Movie Agency Pylyp IIyenko said at the big-screen premier of Kostyuk’s movie on Sept. 29. “It is a great thing that it (the movie) was made at such a high level.”
He added that five another films supported by the agency are coming to big screen by the end of 2016.
“The Living Fire” tells the stories of three generations of Hutsuls living alongside each other in a Carpathian village in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. The movie gets its name from the fire the shepherds light every year in spring on the polonyna, a fire that is kept alight until the end of the summer. This fire is called a living fire.
One of the main characters, 83-year-old Ivan, has lived to a ripe old age, and now sadly recalls the spring of his life as a shepherd. Due to his age, Ivan can no longer hike up to the meadows for the whole summer, so he must content himself with his memories of shepherding. He also grieves for his wife, who died three years before, and is preparing for his own funeral.
Another shepherd, 39-year-old Vasyl, runs the farm and helps the next generation of lambs to be born. He also leaves his family for several months during summer, spending them with his sheep and other shepherds. There, Vasyl cooks a whey cheese, called vurda, made of sheep’s milk, in a large pot.
The youngest character, 10-year-old Ivanko, goes to school in the nearest big town. He hasn’t decided yet whether he will devote his life to tending sheep. He likes to sleep rather than get up early and herd the sheep to pasture.
As the winter snows start to melt, the spring calls the shepherds to pack their belongings onto a wagon, harness up their horses, and begin their journey to the hills and meadows. Ivan recalls how he felt this call of the mountains in his childhood as soon as he saw the first sheep coming up to the hills by his house. And now even little Ivanko takes up a whip and walks with his father, herding the sheep.
He sits on a forest road and absent-mindedly digs at the ground with his fingers. “The border officer from Zakarpattia (Oblast) said that at the end of this polonyna there is gold. But I don’t know where the end is,” he says.
But fewer villagers are hearing the call to shepherding with time, as the modern world slowly encroaches on this remote rural area. According to the movie, only one polonyna of the 78 in this area is still used for grazing sheep – the rest are now empty. The only hope for the continuation of this tradition now lies with the boy Ivanko; that he might take up the traditions of his ancestors and finally hear the mountain’s call.
Watch the trailer for the movie.
Where to watch: Zhovten Cinema (26 Kostiantynivska St.) 7:45 p.m., Hr 70-80, Leninhrad Cinema (7 Yuriya Haharina Ave.) 5:10 p.m., Hr 45, Lira Cinema (40 Velyka Zhytomyrska St.) 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m., Hr 30. Language – Ukrainian.
English speakers can watch the movie via the iTunes store for $5.
