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Focus on the Seto Language
Unique in its genre, Taarka is the only film made in Seto language so far. This hardly known dialect is spoken by about 5,000 people in the county of "Setomaa", which means "The Land of War" in Seto, and is located on the southern border between Estonia and Russia. Like many of the former USSR regions, its population was torn by the Estonian and Russian border disputes that divided the two countries until Russia finally withdrew its signature from the border treaty in 2005. The Setos are a distinct ethnic group from the rest of Estonia, who has their own traditions marked by runic inspired songs and cults of pagan deities. It’s considered now one of the last traditional folk cultures in Europe. One of its main features is the practice of singing that is truly the theme of social and cultural fabric of the Setos. "The songs are inherited from generation to generation," said Maria Kala, a resident of the region to the Russian site "Passport Magazine".
"I learned these songs from my mother. We want to keep tradition alive because it is a direct legacy. Singing is very important for our culture." |
