2011 | 62 min | France, Macedonia
Filmmaker in Person | Introduced by Darren Aronofsky | New York Festival Premiere
Muzafer Bislim comes up with some of his most insightful songs while sitting on the floor, recording lyrics into a cassette recorder bought at a flea market. A poet and songwriter who collaborates with the biggest names in Romani music, the 54-year old lives a life of modest means with his family in Shutka, Macedonia. Stored in the corner of his one-room house is a tottering, ceiling-high stack of handwritten, 25,000-word, multi-dialect dictionary of the oldest and most obscure words in the Romani language, which he has painstakingly collected over 35 years. When he’s invited to the International Biennial of Poets held in Paris, he sees the trip as an opportunity to have his dictionary published. A testament to the endurance of a people who have been scattered across Europe, the dictionary is not only a work of art but also a rare link to a divided past. Punctuated by Bislim’s poetry and original songs, some of which we hear at the moment of their creation, Flames of God immerses the viewer in the literary and musical traditions that this extraordinary artist is committed to preserving.