Folk Play

FOLK PLAY is a compassionate and in depth view of a woman’s awakening in a conservative and patriarchal society.

ANKA(22), a silent young woman lives her quiet life in a small village. Since her mother’s death, she runs the household and the inherited family. Her everyday life revolves around caring for her lonely, devastated father and spending time with MILAN (25), with whom she is in a long-standing relationship, neither happy or unhappy.

When her father sells the tavern to Milan’s father, a local businessman, Anka decides to marry Milan in order to fulfill expectations and stay close to the family business. On the night of their engagement party Anka meets a beautiful folk singer Branka from Belgrade. When Branka is betrayed and underpaid by her fellow musicians, and Milan’s father takes complete control over the tavern, Anka starts reconsidering her decisions. The two women decide to run away together.

On the road to Belgrade, Anka discovers new places and people, experiencing freedom and independence. Although feeling guilty for leaving her father and Milan, the journey marks the beginning of a love between the two women. Having started their new life on the outskirts of the city, Anka is torn between her feeling of guilt and the harsh reality she is living in. While Branka keeps performing in smoky cheap taverns, Anka starts feeling jealous. Realizing that her life has become mundane and turned into everything she ran away from, Anka pressured by her desperate father, decides to leave Branka and return home. In the village everyone forgives Anka and her life quickly takes on the usual daily routine. Nevertheless, what she experienced with Branka changed her forever.

After a while, Branka’s sudden appearance in the village takes Anka by surprise. Their attempt to run away again is brutally and tragically stopped. With Branka heavily wounded, on the road to the hospital Anka tries to keep her alive by singing their favorite songs.