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Kiril во странските медиуми |
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DVD Review April 2006
by Mark Richard Hasan: The GREAT WATER Soundtrack
The stellar music of composer Kiril Dzajkovski is showcased on a soundtrack CD that accompanies The Great Water (Golemata voda), a Macedonian co-production from 2004, and released by Picture This!
Based on the novel by Zhivko Chingo, the story focuses on a dying politician who recalls his formative years in a post-WWII orphanage in Stalinist Yugoslavia, and his obsessive friendship with a mystical lad.
Dzajkovski's score is a rich work that combines traditional instruments, folk melodies, and modern orchestral/synth fusions. The 35 minute CD includes the bulk of the score (the film's tight narrative clocks in at just over 90 minutes.) - and its bold, percussive tracks; a mournful main theme with wordless vocals that perfectly encapsulates the concentration camp atmosphere of what was essentially an indoctrination camp for youths; and the sweeping orchestral passages that sometimes reign in scenes that stray a bit close to the gates of melodrama.
Kinetic rhythmic textures, rustic string solos, and warm and organic percussion instruments are placed way up front in several cues, and Dzajkovski's humanistic themes reinforce the tragedy where a native culture is smothered by Stalinist overlords. Alternating between score cues are some contemporary-styled tracks, including the jazzy "End Titles," and a jaunty source cue.
This is an elegantly crafted score that, through this DVD release, should bring Dzajkovski added attention from international filmmakers and film music fans. (Kiril Dzajkovski's prior film, Dust, a 2001 western co-starring Joseph Fiennes, is also out on DVD, via Lions Gate.) |
