I’m standing at the edge of the cemetery at Zabno watching a Roma memorial service. Everyone is gathered around a marble tombstone that marks a mass grave, one of the few Roma memorials in Poland. It is unknown who is buried here, or how many…47, 49, 59, 61…there is even confusion about the date…June 20th, July 8th…all that is known for sure is that it was 1943.
Zabno, 2012. Pinhole Photograph. © Roz Mortimer
At first it seems like a beautiful day, but a tornado has been forecast, and after the service is over, the vodka has been poured on the ground and everyone has wandered off, I am standing alone by the tomb when the wind swells up as if out of nowhere. I stay filming the birch trees thrashing about in the gale.
Their branches are like tendrils, reaching out to the next tree as the air swirls around.
A choreography of trees.
It is beautiful, but it feels as if the world is angry.
great description.. and the clip carries the emotion well …
Excellent filming Roz – the tendrils seem to extend into pads of leaf that paw in the air as if to create some momentum towards the other – ever in flow, the air propels and dispels, seeking a moment of balance in the wind.