The Tale of Silyan

In THE TALE OF SILYAN — the highly anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-nominated documentary HONEYLAND— filmmaker Tamara Kotevska set out to explore how climate change is reshaping the migration patterns of storks in Macedonia. But over three years of filming, she and cinematographer Jean Dakar uncovered something far more expansive: an intimate portrait of global economic pressure, human migration, the unraveling of rural communities, and the fragile, deeply intertwined relationship between people, land, and wildlife.

What’s remarkable is how, at moments, THE TALE OF SILYAN plays like a narrative feature — yet nothing is staged. Every frame is real. And the story that unfolds is genuinely astonishing.

To dig into how this groundbreaking documentary came together — from early concept to final cut — we sat down with the film’s DP, Jean Dakar, for a conversation about craft, access, and capturing truth on camera.

That conversation on INSIDE THE ARTHOUSE, starting now…

From the Oscar-nominated director of ‘Honeyland’ comes a poignant and visually arresting story set in the heart of rural Macedonia. Nikola, a farmer grappling with the harsh realities of new government policies, finds himself unable to sell his land or crops. When his family leaves in search of a better life abroad, Nikola takes a job as a landfill attendant, where he encounters the injured white stork Silyan. As he nurses the bird back to health, an unlikely bond forms between man and animal. The result is a deeply moving film that touches on climate change, economic migration, resilience and the quiet power of connection.