Ancient Voices From The Heart Of Asia

Éva Kanalas' film about the indigenous peoples of South Siberia at the source region of the rivers Yenesei and Ob, from the republics Altai, Tuva, and Khakassia, Russian Federation, Inner Asia

Primarily the film shows the singing culture of the nations who live there: people of Altai, Tuva, Khakassia present their throat singing, a traditional wedding ceremony of an Altai “Kizsi” couple, how to put up a yurt, the stones standing alone in the plain, man-shaped stones and a traditional slaughter of a sheep in Handagajti. We can hear Mongus Kenin Lopsan the president of the shaman association while he is speaking about Tuva Shamanism. Finally we greet the sun at The Great Salbik Kurgan on the evening of solstice on 21 March 2006.

I first visited the nomadic horse-riding nations of the planes of Inner Asia at the source region of the rivers Yenesei and Ob in 1996. The main aim of our expedition was to collect folk songs among the indigenous people and to sing Hungarian folk songs to the villagers as a way of bringing them news from their far-away relatives in Hungary. From 2004 to 2006 I continued my collecting work in these areas again.

My work was supported by the Hungarian State.While I made the shamans of our days aware of the Hungarian Táltos traditions with the help of my songs and my drum - Hungarian folk-songs, saying proverbs and archaic prayers. Hungarian Táltos traditions are similar to the Siberian shaman traditions.

Éva Kanalas

Director: Éva Kanalas

Videocamera: 1996 - József Lukács, 2005 - Éva Kanalas
Cutting: Zsolt Felföldi