04/04/2025 - In his documentary, Stefan Malešević whisks us away to a secluded Dervish community in North Macedonia and hypnotises us – Dervish-style

We tend to see religion in a certain, uniform light that is highly simplified and often unfavourable, to put it mildly. If we were to take Islam as an example, the first images that could potentially spring to mind may be the stereotypes of discrimination against women and fundamentalism. However, Islam is more diverse than that in a theological sense, as it is merely a wider framework of varied “schools of thought” and customs, beliefs and practices that are rooted not just in different interpretations of the scripture, but also in different folklores.

In his newest documentary Soil and Wings, Serbian filmmaker Stefan Malešević takes us to a very small and very specific Muslim community in North Macedonia. They are Bektashi, a small “sect” residing in the village of Kanatlarci. Their origins stretch to the Janissary soldiers of the Ottoman Turkish empire, while their practices are Sufi-Dervish. Soil and Wings has premiered in the regional competition of the 21st ZagrebDox.

On the “soil” level, we get to learn a thing or two about the community through the members of the Arifoski family, their hard-working life in the countryside, where they grow tobacco and watermelons, and their ways and beliefs. For instance, they are pantheists who equate not just women with men, but also humans with animals, plants and other things believed to have a soul. They also drink alcohol and find it medicinal in small doses. They speak an archaic dialect of the Turkish language, but the elders who have more contact with the outside world also communicate in Macedonian. And although they live in some sort of seclusion from other nations and religious groups, they do not reject the modern world. On another level, that of the “wings”, we get to see their psychedelic, mesmerising rituals being practised, and to hear their equally psychedelic and mesmerising myths and legends that shape their inner worlds.

Malešević definitely has a knack for studying small, secluded communities, as he demonstrated in his previous documentary Gora (2016): he proves he has the eye of an anthropologist, trying to capture the human essence beneath the surface of economic conditions, the burden of history and daily politics. With Soil and Wings, he immerses himself in the milieu even more deeply, and the result is not an observer’s film about the Bektashi people and their community, but rather a movie that feels, and is, very “Bektashi” in terms of its atmosphere.

Working as his own cinematographer, Malešević often uses long, slowly rotating panorama shots that become the perfect tool to either portray the tranquillity with which his subjects approach their lives, or to give a visual background to the voice-over narrations of their legends. The intelligently austere use of the music, composed by Branislav Jovančević, and the discreet sound design by Bojan Palikuća complement the visual component, while Jelena Maksimović’s typically inspired editing establishes a fitting, meditative pace.

In the end, and especially in its otherworldly ending sequence, Soil and Wings becomes quite a hypnotic experience that remains respectful to its subjects, and faithful to their way of life, rituals and beliefs. As such, it should also stay with the viewer for a long time after the screening is over.

Soil and Wings was staged as a co-production between Serbia’s Obol Film and North Macedonia’s Minimal Collective.