Sava (2021)

• 85%
• 2021
• Documentary
• Matthew Somerville

An ancient river tells us her story, conversing with inhabitants along her flow. Corseted by man, she is an artery not a barrier, taking the viewer on a 990 km journey through divided lands she seeks to understand. She is Sava (Mira Furlan).Her ethereal voice acts as a guide between people who share stories, memories and visions of the future which navigate an innate connection to nature, a relationship with borders and the construct of nationhood.For millennia Sava has been a witness to human history; a conduit between East and West, the dividing line of great empires and a common thread between nations. Sava's journey connecting these young nation states begins in Slovenia taking us through the entire country and into Croatia where she eventually forms the border with Bosnia and that of the European Union frontier, finally we enter Western Serbia where she flows to the heart of Belgrade and joins the Danube.Old Steelworkers ruminate on what their communities have lost and gained by the fall of heavy industry, musicians and drag queens and new ways to talk about their own and regional identity, ferrymen deliberate on hydropower shifting the rivers ow, war veterans question what independence was for and anarchists who seek to escape the ever invasive and controlling machinations of the state.With the river as the protagonist, voiced by former-Yugoslav actress Mira Furlan. Speaking on behalf of Sava her voice transcends borders and ideology stimulating a discourse between humanity, nationhood and nature.