Farmers in Cesinovo and white storks live side by side in Tamara Kotevska’s The Tale of Silyan. This ambitious documentary shows those two species living within a fragile ecosystem that’s thankfully not too hopeless. It seems that way though, as the wholesalers’ underpricing leads to a near abandonment and destruction of most North Macedonian farms. The farmers and the storks turn to working the dumpsters filled with poison. There, an empty nest farmer turned bulldozer operator, Nikola Conev, finds a stork and becomes one of the town’s stork fosters. While viewers see this real life story unfold, Nikola tells the titular North Macedonian fable about Silyan. Taking place centuries prior, it’s the story of a boy turned stork hoping to reunite with his father.
Documentaries about animals like white storks like The Tale of Silyan have similar hallmarks, showing natural beauty. This documentary does that tenfold, having drone shots that show the storks, godlike creatures with nests above. But it’s also modern in many ways, showing the ugliness of waste that’s the byproduct of late capitalism. I’m not saying that everything about nature is good and everything about modernity is accordingly bad. Parts of the documentary show Nikola FaceTiming his family who immigrated to Germany, a family reluctantly abandoning him. Organic dialogue between the documentary’s subjects tell of the fate that falls on some men left behind. But watch the documentary to find out whether a man and a white stork can save each other.
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Documentary
- Release Date: 9/10/2025
- Directed by: Tamara Kotevska
- Produced by: Jean Dakar, Jordančo Petkovski, Tamara Kotevska
- Studio: Ciconia Film, Concordia Studio, The Corner Shop
