All language subtitles for The.Manakia.Brothers..Diary.Of.A.Long.Look.Back.2016.720p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

Downloaded from
YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

One day my uncle showed me a book
in which he had written the history of our family.

There were photos of everyone in the family.

He knew a lot of details
about each of them.

...who had taken them, where, when...

...how...

But there was one
he didn't know much about.

I didn't take this one.

- Who did?
- This photo was taken…

- This was taken…
- When was it taken?

My family is one of the few
Aromanian families left.

Aromanians have always lived scattered
around the Balkans.

They don't have a country of their own.

I love the poise of these Aromanian folks.

There are few peoples, where, without exception,
the rich, the poor, women, men, children,

have this kind of poise, as if they were
stepping out in their own empire.

At the Museum of the Romanian Peasant
in Bucharest,

I find a collection of old photographs
with Aromanians

which Ioana Popescu published
in an album.

The first thing that comes into my mind
when I look at these photos

is that all these people resemble terribly
my uncles, aunts and cousins.

All the photos bear the same signature.

THE MANAKIA BROTHERS

I would like to ask you something.
Looking at the photos in this album,

I’ve got a photo of my great-grandparents,

I know that this great-grandfather
of mine, Mita Zdru, was an armatol.

so he fought in the mountains
against the Greeks,

and I was wondering if maybe
this photo is also taken by them.

My first feeling is surprise, because
I was expecting to see an armatol

and all I’m seeing is a normal person,
in plainclothes.

This type of picture-taking,
with the curtain behind,

everyone all nicely seated,
a well-balanced composition,

with the man sitting down, as always –
the man always sits down,

he’s the main element in the frame
and the woman stands next to him.

All these things are very similar
to the style of the Manakia brothers.

But at the same time they are very similar
to the style of the time.

I know Marian Țuțui did a lot of research
about this. You also need to ask him.

They might have taken it,
they have similar photos.

Not all their photos were signed.

For example, they did not sign
the photos with revolutionaries

probably because they didn’t want
to upset the authorities.

I, for one, haven’t seen this photo before
and I’ve seen several hundreds of their photos.

I know Marian Țuțui because he wrote
a book about the Manakia brothers

while he was Chief Editor at
The Romanian Film Archives.

Milton and Ianaki Manakia were Aromanians.

If we think of the 20th century,

they captured all the dramatic events
at the beginning of the century,

all the changes in the Balkans -

the Saint Elijah uprising,
the Young Turks’ Revolution,

the Balkan Wars, the two World Wars.

Their activity of over 50 years –
even if they weren’t the first to film,

we can consider them
the first filmmakers of the Balkans.

Diary of a long look back

In 1905, my brother went to Paris,
where he studied drawing.

At that time he had heard
of a camera for making films,

but such a camera could not be found in Paris,

so he went all the way to London
and brought it from there.

It was forbidden to posses
such things under Ottoman rule.

Yet, he brought it without reporting it
to the Turkish customs officers.

So we started making films.

- Hello.
- Hello, is this Mr. Nicolae Tanașoca?

Yes, please.

I’d like to ask if you could meet me
to tell me a couple of things

about who the Manakia brothers were.

The circumstances in which
the Manakia brothers worked

are very interesting and important
for the history of the Balkans.

We’re talking about the late 19th century –
early 20th century.

And that was a time of great effervescence
in the Balkans,

when the concept of nation and also
the nation states appeared in the Balkans

…Bulgaria, Serbia… who fought with one another
for the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire.

Here are the heros of the Ottoman Constitution.

The Manakia brothers were commissioned

by the Young Turk Committee
to take these photos.

Here are other leaders of the party

which was fighting for the modernization of
the Turkish State, following the French model.

In other words, the Europeanisation of Turkey.

I visit Nicolae Tanașoca - a philologist
and Aromanian historian

and an authority in Balkan cultures -

for a second time at the Romanian Academy

trying to understand a historical situation
which I find hard to decipher.

The aim of the First Balkan War
was to liberate Macedonia from Turkey.

The Second Balkan War was
a fight between the winners.

Romania stepped in at the last moment
and ended the conflict.

The peace treaty was signed in Bucharest.

So, a new order was established
in this area.

National states were formed, borders
were set and reset several times.

Not everyone's demands were satisfied.

Of course, eventually, peace was reached,
but this is how the Second Balkan War started.

How do you think these photos ended up
in the collection of the Academy?

A part of them were given
by the brothers themselves.

They made them specifically for this purpose
and then donated them.

“All these photos were taken on the scene by
the Manakia brothers”, handwritten signiture,

"photographers of the Romanian Royal Court."

They were commissioned by
the Romanian Royal Court.

"Monastir / Bitola, Turkey."

The photos of the Manakia brothers
can serve as extraordinary documentation

for the early 20th century conflicts
in the Balkans.

They filmed and photographed all the participants,
all the conflicting parties.

During all this time, the Manakias acted
as Romanians, that’s for sure.

The interesting thing is that the way in which
the different parties in the Balkans

fought for Macedonia back then

is the same way people fight
for the Manakia brothers nowadays.

Not by killing though,
just by writing about them.

If you read a Romanian book, it tells the truth:
they were the photographers of the Romanian Royal Court.

If you read a book written in Skopje, it says they're Macedonian,
ain’t got a Romanian bone in their bodies.

There is this important Greek book written
about the brothers – a very good one, actually.

It doesn’t say a word about them being Vlach.

It says right on the cover -
the Greek brothers Manakia.

The question “What are Aromanians?”
is a difficult one.

In brief, the simplest definition
is probably this one:

they are heirs of the peoples who lived
in the Balkan Peninsula and were Romanized.

Not all of them were Romanized,
just parts of them.

Today, we have a diverse, very complicated
self-identification map.

There are Aromanians
who call themselves Greek.

There are Aromanians
who call themselves Romanians.

There are Aromanians who call themselves “Macedonian”
in the Republic of Macedonia.

But as a general rule, the way I perceive it,

Aromanians will adopt the mentality
of the states they live in.

And that’s actually probably normal.
Why?

In order for them to live an easier life,
to avoid difficulties.

And I believe the great gift of all Aromanians
is to pass unnoticed.

To remain unseen, to avoid creating conflicts,
to mind their own business.

I believe that’s in our blood.

Alexandru Gica is an Aromanian math teacher
who seems to be

a historian disguised as a mathematician.

Of all the people I know, he is the most informed
person on the topic of Aromanians.

I ask him what was happening with them
at the beginning of the 20th century,

when the Manakia brothers
started to work.

At the time, there was a sort of competition,

a struggle between Greece and Romania
regarding the Aromanians.

A sort of a war, which sometimes
resulted in casualties.

The way I see things, most of the Aromanians back then
thought of themselves as Greeks.

However, beginning with the 19th century,
the Romanian identity emerges.

In 1864, the Romanian state started to send help,
opening up schools and churches.

And that’s when things started
to deteriorate in the Aromanian world,

because an internal conflict started.

The conflict was between the pro-Greek Aromanians
and the pro-Romanian ones.

We need to mention that Avdella,
the place where the Manakia brothers were born

was almost entirely inhabited by pro-Romanians.

It was a paradigm shift for those times.

It was certainly not traditional
to take photos in the Aromanian world.

Ianaki tried to convince them that
these photos aren’t anything fantastical,

that they’re a completely natural thing.

He played a lot with the Aromanians’
sense of pride

telling them that “your grandchildren and great-grandchildren
will see you and thus remember you!

I think Milton is the typical Aromanian.

The Aromanian who plays all his cards.

He can be friends with the Bulgarian, the Greek,
the Turk, friends with everyone.

That’s how the Aromanians lived:
be friends with everyone, in order to stay alive.

And, the way I read him,
he also cracked lots of jokes.

That’s how I see him.
He seemed somewhat freer.

Ianaki was a bit more closed off.

After one year, Milton gave up school
and became his brother’s apprentice.

Ianaki first went to school in Avdella,

then became a primary school teacher
at the Romanian school in Ioannina.

He always wanted to be a teacher.

He was very passionate about it.

He wasn’t just an art teacher, he also
taught calligraphy.

It was in this context that they opened
their photo studio in Ioannina.

Ioannina was a multiethnic,
highly cosmopolitan town.

Three major ethnic groups lived in the city:
Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

So, we’re talking about a multicultural city,

where many ethnic groups
had been living together for many years

and we’re talking about a time during which
both the nationalistic movements,

as well as the role that the Sultan
and the High Porte played,

had begun to disturb this climate
of peaceful conviviality.

Gradually, enmities and rivalries emerged
between the various peoples,

with the goal of dominating one another
in the region.

That’s where the Manakia brothers lived
and ran their photo studio.

Of course, they photographed people of all these ethnicities,
their daily lives, the events,

not only in Ioannina, but also in the vicinity,

where they photographed festivals, parties,
families, personalities.

Before leaving from The Museum
of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest

Ioana Popescu suggested I should talk to
Vassilis Nitsiakos,

professor of anthropology at
the University of Ioannina.

After I arrive at his office,
I find out that Vassilis is also Aromanian

"Do you speak Aromanian?" he asks me.
”A little”, I answer.

I end up speaking in English and him in Greek,
helped out by an Aromanian Greek translator

who studied in Romania.

We are clearly in the Balkans.

Look, many years have passed.

For a long time, such sentiment was considered
taboo in Greece,

everything that had to do with Romanian propaganda,
as it was regarded here in Greece.

The Manakia brothers came from a family
who chose a certain ethnic identity.

What does this identity actually represent?

Since we’re talking about an era in which
national movements were just emerging,

ethnic identities are not well defined yet,
they’re unstable.

So, various ethnic groups
have to choose their own identity

and this happens at random many times.

I think the Manakia brothers did more
than just relate stories

of the events in the Balkans,
by photographing or filming them.

I think they also literally
took part in these events.

If I recall correctly, I think I saw a photo
of the Manakia brothers

and a Macedonian military group,

which means they had been recruited

or chose to join such military groups,

who were fighting for the future
of Macedonia.

It’s a typical situation for young men
in the Balkans,

called to arms to define their nationality…

In my view, this is not very clear.

The Greeks will say they are Greek,
the Yugoslavians will say they are Yugoslavian

The Macedonians will say they are Macedonian,
the Romanians will say they are Romanian and so on.

And this is a typical situation for the Balkans,

this kind of transitional situation,
in which things aren’t clear,

and can be confusing
even for the people themselves.

And, on top of that, we label them, too,
which is completely wrong, in my view.

In late April 1905, a gathering took place
in Băiasa.

It was Easter.

The Aromanians there wanted to read mass
both in Romanian, as well as in Aromanian.

And that’s when
a major conflict emerged in Băiasa,

between the pro-Romanian Aromanians and
the pro-Greek Aromanians on this issue.

They argued, they fought.

The Turks didn’t really know
what to do.

Eventually, they decided to arrest the two
Romanian school inspectors who were there.

They were arrested for this reason,
for allegedly starting the conflict in Băiasa.

That same day, Ianaki Manakia was also arrested,
since he was also there, caught up in this dispute.

Ianaki spent two days in prison.

His photographer’s permit, issued in Ioannina,
was taken from him.

He was fired from the Ioannina school.

He was placed under house arrest,
in his village of Avdella

from May until early September,
when he received a position at the school in Bitola.

Ianaki was there when this happened.

They burned down 130 houses, shops, inns,
blacksmiths.

Almost the entire village was burned down.
The Manakia house was burned down, too.

So, they lived through very tough times.

I don’t know if they took any photos
of members of the diplomatic corps in Ioannina,

but they definitely did that in Bitola.

And I think that, from a social perspective, they were
far better off in Bitola then in Ioannina.

That’s how their world expanded.

I met Milton in 1943.
I rented his studio.

And I was working in Milton’s studio
and Milton asked me,

“Kid, do you know how to take photographs?”

I said, “I don’t know”.

I, Manakia, will tell you how to take photographs.

And he took this machine, the 18/20,
he put the chair over there

and said: “I sit here, you make a portrait of me,
you do as I say."

- The focus?
- Yes, the focus and the composition.

This I knew how to make.

And did you make his portrait?

Not an official one, just like that…

Is this Manakia, I wonder.
One second.

- It’s not him.
- No, it’s not him. Further up.

Where’s Milton?

It’s not him.

Where can it be?

Maybe that way?

First we filmed our family,
working, weaving and doing things.

Then we filmed weddings, customs, traditional dances,
salesmen, tenants, events, all kind of things.

When the Hürriyet happened,
we filmed everybody,

including the participants in the Ilinden Uprising
coming from the mountains.

As a journalist for Radio Bitola, I was
the editor of the radio show “Film review”

that dealt with stories from the world of film

and the news of Milton Manaki’s illness
spread quickly in Bitola

because he was nowhere to be seen
on the main street where he usually walked.

He was ill and quite exhausted already,
he was already elderly,

no one knows what he suffered from exactly,

but I guess the years
caught up with him so to speak,

so he stopped taking his regular walk
on Shirok Sokak.

On February the 18th,
2 weeks before his death,

I got ready to take the interview on an audio tape,
and took a 20-mintues long interview.

2 weeks after that interview,
he passed away.

It was his last interview
and the longest one he gave

in which you could hear his voice on tape.

Manaki was a truly witty person,
very funny person,

he couldn’t walk 2-3 meters along the street

and not stop to talk to someone,
or to make some joke or witticism.

There is a joke about him, when he would go out
to sell a photo, after going back home,

his wife would ask him:
“What did you do Manaki?”

and he would answer:
“Write a zero”,

so she would say
“So everyday just a zero’”?

“So far yes, but when the time comes for you
to put a ‘one’, many zeros will come after it!”.

He was really poor, even until his last day he had
a goat that he took grazing down the promenade

and he made his bread that way
I would say,

because the system at the time had no
appreciation of the wealth he had,

all he had accomplished
in cinematography and photography.

He has a nephew who lives in Kumanovo,
he’s also called Milton Manaki.

He’s his nephew from his son.

I have his phone number,
you can find him.

00...

...389

...31

What was it?

...430703.

- Dobar den?
- Dobar den.

I will ask about Leonid Manaki,
because that’s what’s written here.

They have started writing my biography
but it is not over yet.

When Tomislav came to me,
he gave me a letter from Georges Sadoul,

a French cinema writer, in France.

It said: “I am sending you
one of my students.

Tell him your biography as the founder
of film in the Balkans

so he can write it down".

There are a lot of interesting things
but I don’t remember all the details anymore.

I captured the oldest
and most interesting things.

I also filmed all the kings
that passed through here.

How many are there here?

Here, in our archive, how many plates we’ve got?
Almost 6,000.

6,000? And are they all like this?

We have plates, other kinds of negatives,
also roll films.

Almost 16,000 originals.

How old were they? Does it say?

The year was 1906.

It was taken in Bucharest.

Bitola Archives 2105 / 119 -
The portrait of King Carol I, 1906, Sinaia, Romania.

Bitola Archives 1267 / 72 -
King Alexander Karađorđević of Serbia and Queen Marija

visiting the Saint Naum Monastery
in Ohrid.

Bitola Archives 1761 / 95 -
The sons of Sultan Reshad V

dressed in the traditional clothes
of the city of Debar

received as a gift from the citizens
of Bitola.

Looking at the pictures taken
by the Manakia brothers

I realize that what I would have really liked to make

is a 4 hour long observational documentary

in which I would have followed the brothers while
they photographed and filmed in the Balkans.

I would have met all the people
in these images

whom I can see only here and now,

100 years later from the times
when they were alive.

Kings, consuls, armed revolutionaries,

peasants and city people.

Maybe I would have even
met my great-grandparents.

In the evening, after finishing the shooting,

I would have sat down with Milton
to drink a beer or an ouzo,

at a cafe in the city center,

making funny remarks about
the people passing by,

while Ianaki, withdrawn
at the other end of the table,

would have observed us silently,
and somewhat reproachful.

Ianaki...

Ianaki on a trip with his friends,
at the Hisar Baths in Bulgaria.

What year is this?

The exact year isn’t known,
it’s between 1916 and 1919.

- But what was he doing in Bulgaria?
- He was interned...

What for?

At the time, they drove the Aromanians away,
to have them interned in Bulgaria.

- Why?
- They didn’t want them here.

When the First World War started
Bulgaria occupied Bitola.

They took several well-known Aromanians,
who were pro-Romanian,

and sent them in exile in Bulgaria.

Ianaki was sent to Plovdiv
for several reasons,

but I think, primarily, because of
his connections with Romania.

Of course, there were also other reasons,
like some photos with some airplanes.

They also found some weapons
and gun powder in their house.

We don't know much about his stay there,
but it seems like he was able to work there too.

He found people to photograph.

Good afternoon, how may I help you?

Good afternoon, excuse me, I would like to know
if you could give me

the address connected to the telephone number
I just inserted.

You haven’t inserted a number, tell me,
what’s the number?

031…I think this is in Kumanovo...
031430…

...703.

Manaki, Leonid.

Alright, could you possibly give me
his home address?

Varazhdinska…

Sorry?

Varazhdinska, number 24.

Varazhdinska, 24.
Thank you very much, goodbye.

As far as I know, what I have been told
by my father and my mother here,

it’s correct that he was adopted.

- When he was a little child, how old was he…2?
- 6 years old.

- Here, my mother can tell you.
- He was 6 years old, in Larissa.

No, in Grevena, he was born there,
my husband, in Grevena.

Milton Manaki’s wife was my father’s aunt.

- Blood-related aunt.
- Yes, blood-related.

They couldn’t have kids,
Milton and Vasilikia,

and then my father was the oldest child
of the other family

and they gave him to Milton and Vasilikia.

He described his father, my grandfather,
as a carefree man.

A man with a good heart,
with a good soul.

He wanted to help everyone,
he was friends with everyone.

They did not live in luxury, they had always been
a modest family, poor if I can say so.

He didn’t work in that field for material gain,
he was just drawn to it, so he did it.

Yes, yes.

- Have you met him mum?
- But of course, he really loved me.

Even before I got married, when my husband
was studying at the Faculty of Forestry,

he lived in a student’s dormitory
and so was I.

And my father-in-law, I wasn’t even
his daughter-in-law back then,

when he would come to the dormitory,
he would come visit me first and then his son.

And once I became a doctor,
every time I went to Oteshevo for a vacation,

he would wait for me at the bus station, take me
with him saying “you’re gonna be staying with us”.

I would protest, but he would take my suitcases,
put them inside the wardrobe

and then, at the end, take me back again.
He really loved me.

My father told me that Ianaki
never took photographs.

Of course, there are some photos he has done,
as we all take photos nowadays.

But mostly, the work in that field
was done by Milton.

So Milton Manaki had 4 passports.

He had an Italian, a Romanian
and a Greek one maybe, was it?

On several occasions, he was summoned
by the king in Romania,

not sure how, but he was the court artist
over there in Romania.

He won several recognitions.

Here you can see the initials of Carol I,
I believe it is.

Well this is from
the Cinematheque of Yugoslavia -

Pioneer of the Yugoslav film.

So this is a plan of the cinema, how it was
supposed to look like when they started building it.

The only thing they owned was not the house,
but the ground where the cinema was built.

They bought it and then
built the cinema there.

Before leaving Igor,
at the Cinemateque in Skopje,

he told me that he's still looking
for films shot by the Manakia brothers.

Films that are lost somewhere,
unidentified.

He told me that when he's doing this

he feels like a hunter, searching for
something he never lost.

This hunter thing got stuck in my head.

Isn't this what documentary filmmaking
is all about?

To search for something that you never lost,

something that you will also probably
never find.

I have a photograph of my great-grandfather.

And I remember that, a while ago, in some book,

I found this info, that a certain
Mita Zdru was an armatol.

- And I don’t know if this is the one.
- It’s this one for sure.

Can you tell me what an armatol was?

We call armatols those who fought in the
late 19th century, early 20th century,

in that dramatic conflict between
Aromanians and Aromanians.

Your great-grandfather was a member
of such a group,

who wanted to defend the Aromanian villages
around Cândrova against the Greek fighters.

He was friends with Cola Nicea
and Yioryi Mucitani Hasapu.

It was a group of brave people.

And do you think the Manakia brothers
might have taken it?

We know for a fact that Yioryi Mucitani Hasapu
and Cola Nicea

were indeed photographed by
the Manakia brothers.

So, it’s possible.

Of course, we don’t know it for a fact.
And I can't speak from a technical point of view.

Between 1920 and 1940, a large number
of the Aromanians in the Balkans

migrated massively to Romania,

hoping for a better life, far away from all
the killings and the disputes,

a place where they could finally
be themselves.

My family was part of this wave
that arrived in Romania in that period,

after passing through Bulgaria.

The photo of my great-grandparents was most probably
taken sometime during these years,

in which they were between two countries,

between two places that they could call
their home.

I thought I should end
my search in Avdella,

the village were the brothers were born
and where the whole story began.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm making this film.

- How many people are there in Avdella today?
- 20 - 25.

When are there more people? How many people
are here in the summer and in wintertime?

There are 5 people here during winter.

But have you heard stories about them here?

- No...
- Do the people here know about them?

No, no.

They are not alive anymore.
They died, 70-80 years ago.

There is nobody left to remember them.

- Will you show me the house?
- Yes.

- It’s not far, it’s close to here.
- But why is their home no longer there?

It burned and then it fell.

What year was that, do you know?

When the Germans came.

- Was it over here?
- Yes.

- On this spot?
- Watch out. Here it is.

This is it.

- The house was here?
- Yes. And it burned.

- Where these houses here, too?
- Yes.

- Or were they built after that?
- They were built later.

The Manakias had sheep.

There were two boys and girls.

How many girls there were, I don’t know.

I do remember one of them.

She was Rina, married to Bicheni,
and she was the daughter of Manakia.

Ianaki married and took Anastasia
as his wife.

They had a son who died young.

And Ianaki was upset when his son died
and so he died young, too.

Miltiade married old.

And he took the daughter of Dauca Chiaua.

And he adopted a son from his brother-in-law,
from Alexaki Dauca.

His name was Leonida.

- The well broke.
- It broke?

It says Manakia, see?

The Manakias built this well.

Here – let me just turn to the other side.

This is where we came
when we finished weaving

or whatever else we were working on.

We’d get bread and cheese
and come here to eat.

When we finished work.

Where do we go? To Manakia’s.

Oh, poor Avdella

Why do you look so sad?

How can I not be sad?

All my people are gone

They're gone far away
And I can't find them

I wish the village were alive again

I wish everybody would return

So that we could all be as one again.

Oh, poor Avdella

Why do you look so sad?

Aromanians were like a bridge.

Even if they fought with different other people,
at the end of the day,

all they wanted was to be
left in peace.

And I think that’s exactly why
we have faded out of history...

In other words, what do you really want –
to fight or to live?

Better to be alive.

Whenever we wanted to affirm ourselves,
that often meant death for us.

And it probably came as natural wisdom:

It’s better to get along with everybody,
then maybe you will survive.

Maybe...

Maybe if we could regain this look of theirs –

this look that sweeps over all the killings,
all the conflicts and the disputes.

Maybe we need to go back to this look of theirs,
that goes beyond all of these things.