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DESCRIPTION OF THE FILM:

"The End of the Song" is a record of a nostalgic trip, in whose course the author - Piotr Borowski - toured the same places 27 years later. He visited villages in northeast Poland in 1980 and 2007. He visited people - many of whom were of Belarussian and Tatar descent. In 1980 Borowski and his friends recorded songs sung for them in exchange for the "wandering" performance they were presenting. He returned to the Białystok region in the northeast in 2007, to give back the recordings to the people or their family members. He was wandering from home to home, and he played archival recordings to the families of long deceased singers. Music becomes a carrier of a tradition that has passed away together with people. This voice from the past evokes the most human emotions and sets free assorted recollections and nostalgia. "The End of the Song" becomes the documentation of a vanishing world. At the same time, it urges to pose numerous questions about con temporaneity and tradition.

"It was an overwhelming impression that in front of our eyes the old world was fading away as villages were depopulating, young people were moving to the city, and among the old ones memory was disappearing. That winter of 1980, I was overcoming people's resistance and distrust, knowing that I was gathering the priceless treasures of the vanishing world. In 2007 I returned to give the recordings back to them or to hand them over to the families of those who had already passed away. Finding their children and grandchildren became a fulfillment and closure of what I did 27 years ago. Monthly meetings, conversations resulting from them, listening to the voice on the recordings were documented in a film. To get to the truth of memories, the film was shot "live", spontaneously, without pre-arranging the situation. It was a very personal response to the beloved ones, ancestors, and cultural heritage. It shows how old people live through the song in their grandchildren, children, successors, what happens to the culture after a quarter of a century, which trail this old trace takes today." (Piotr Borowski)

INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Piotr Borowski - is an actor and theatre director. He is the founder of the Warsaw-based independent theatre company Studium Teatralne. In 1975, Borowski began his association with Jerzy Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre. He took part in Special Project conducted within Grotowski’s Active Culture programme and was involved in organising the University of Research of the Theatre of Nations in Wrocław. He also co-founded the Centre for Theatre Practices Gardzienice, where he was an actor and musician from 1977 to 1983. Invited by Jerzy Grotowski, he moved to Italy, where in Pontedera the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski was being created. Between 1985 and 1993, Borowski co-created Grotowski’s last project "Performer", conducted in the domain of Art as Vehicle. After returning to Poland in 1995, he started building an independent theatre company. In September 1997, he officially set up Studium Teatralne at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw and has staged there the following performances: ”Miasto / City”, ”Północ / Midnight”, ”Człowiek / Man”, ”Parsifal”, ”Hamlet”, ”Henryk Hamlet Hospital (H.H.H)/ Henry Hamlet Hospital (H.H.H)”, ”Król kier znów na wylocie / Chasing the King of Hearts”, by Hanna Krall, ”The Line of Return / Linia powrotu”, ”Co się stało z naszą bajką? / What Happened to Our Fairy Tale?” by Hanna Krall, ”Szepty ziemi / Whispers of the Earth” by Marcin Cecko, ”Party: Take(a)part”, ”Deadline”. In 2012, he directed Shakespeare’s Tempest at Varasanta Theatre in Bogota, Columbia. He has conducted theatre workshops with young actors and art students in Brazil, England, Venezuela, Italy, Columbia, Sweden, Belorussia, and now in Poland. He is also the author of a documentary film ”Koniec pieśni / The End of the Song”.

LINKS:

The End of the Song

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