After The Tale of Silyan made its U.S. debut last month at AFI Fest in Hollywood, SHOOT sought out one of the film’s producers, Anna Hashmi, a founding partner and executive producer of The Corner Shop, a production company that made its initial mark in commercials, branded content and music videos before diversifying meaningfully into shorts, feature films and television.
Hashmi shared backstory on The Tale of Silyan, the artistic collaborators who came together to make the film, discussed the gratification of telling stories about different cultures, and reflected on how The Corner Shop has evolved over time.
Tamara Kotevska directed The Tale of Silyan, which was recently acquired by National Geographic Documentary Films. The feature has been on a roll, starting with its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Cinema and Arts Award there. The Tale of Silyan then went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was selected a little over a month ago by North Macedonia as its entry for the Best International Feature Oscar.
Kotevska is no stranger to the Academy Awards. Her first documentary feature, Honeyland, earned a pair of Oscar nominations in 2020–for Best International Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature.
Kotevska and cinematographer Jean Dakar produced The Tale of Silyan for Ciconia Film, alongside The Corner Shop’s Hashmi, as well as Jordanco Petkovski. The film is executive produced by Oscar-winner (An Inconvenient Truth) Davis Guggenheim of Concordia Studio, as well as Laurene Powell Jobs, Casey Meurer and Lizzie Fox.
Set in the heart of rural North Macedonia, The Tale of Silyan introduces us to Nikola, a farmer struggling to make a living. He forms an unlikely bond with a wounded white stork, Silyan. As part of North Macedonian folklore, the stork was originally a young adult who wanted to leave home to find himself and pursue his dreams. His father vowed that if the lad departed, he would be dead to his family. As it turned out, this fate translated into the youngster being transformed into a stork. Nikola and the stork–both separated from their families–somehow fill a void in their lives through each other. While Nikola nurses Silyan back to health, so too does the stork help to heal what ails the farmer. The Tale of Silyan reaffirms our connection to the natural world around us, and the healing power of relationships. A mesh of documentary and poetry, the film also touches upon such issues and themes as climate change, migration, resilience, the power of community and culture.
Backstory
Hashmi hearkened back to what drew her to Kotevska initially–namely Honeyland, a film which The Corner Shop mainstay said “totally captured my imagination and filled me with wanderlust for remote little villages and to meet local characters to see how they live; so it was ironic that we first met on Zoom in 2020 during the pandemic when [filmmaker] Ellen Kuras [who’s on The Corner Shop roster] and I started working on a global project during lockdown. We collaborated on a short film that Tamara directed, called Solo Mode, and I was so impressed with her vision as a director–so we discussed working together more.
“Tamara had been researching farmers and storks for over a year for a narrative feature film she had written, and then the shoot got postponed. She was reviewing all the stunning footage she had captured of storks and wondering how to use it, when I then got involved and we made a pitch for a short documentary film. We needed to start shooting straight away to capture the migration patterns of the storks, and then Tamara found Nikola [the farmer in the film], and she knew she had a story she could make into a feature film, so the film evolved very organically. It was exciting.
“As a documentary director, Tamara captures the magic of humanity and shoots in a style that feels grand and cinematic and narrative, but is totally authentic,” continued Hashmi. “That was so interesting to me, her ability to tell seemingly small stories and show us how important these worlds are. Also, in the case of The Tale of Silyan, I especially loved the idea of weaving in a fable to reflect a contemporary story. I grew up on Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, where ‘the happy ever after’ is a double edged sword.. much like life itself.”
Hashmi feels a deep creative bond with Kotevska and Dakar. “Working with Tamara and Jean is magical,” assessed Hashmi. “I would get calls when they were shooting, both so excited about how the story was evolving, the footage they had shot. They are both so talented, so dedicated and extremely smart. Working with them is so creatively fulfilling, and I love how they immerse themselves in a project. They practically lived with Nikola during the shoot, and then in a van outside for a few months, so they really became friends with him, and built up a lot of trust and respect to be able to capture such an intimate portrait of his life.
“Jean’s cinematography in this film is spellbinding. He spent so much time around the storks, getting them used to flying with a drone [in close proximity], growing up with his drone hovering around their nests–it’s truly exceptional footage. You need to see this film on a cinema screen–he is a real master of his craft.”
The power of cultural storytelling
Hashmi also expressed a special pride in North Macedonia’s decision to put The Tale of Silyan up for International Feature Oscar consideration. She explained, “Although I am not Macedonian, I have a diverse cultural heritage and I’m really invested in supporting and working with directors to make stories and films about different cultures and ways of life. Tamara’s anthropological lens explores the ancient knowledge of living with nature and indigenous cultures that is captivating to watch, while also sharing a message about the environment, consumerism and diminishing communities.
“North Macedonia has a right to be very proud of her. And I am too!”
Animated titles
The Corner Shop also had a hand in the animated titles for The Tale of Silyan. Hashmi noted that Kotevska “always wanted to have animated titles for the film, as she used the Macedonian folk tale about Silyan the Stork as a thread through the film. The folk tale is very well known in the region, and tells the story of a boy named Silyan who is turned into a stork after a quarrel with his father, so the titles needed to have a beautiful painterly quality to reflect the story. I immediately suggested Varun Chopra, (another filmmaker we work with), who is obscenely multi-talented. He is also a writer and director, and crafts beautiful graphic and animated titles with his team in India.
“I love connecting our directors to work together whenever they can, as I think directors can become so isolated,” observed Hashmi. “Whenever there’s an opportunity for creative collaboration, it is beneficial all around. Varun also recently created the animated titles for Sara Dunlop’s Channel 4 series Dreamers, and they collaborated on a MENCAP charity film for the U.K.
“That is part of the culture I try to nurture at The Corner Shop–creative collaboration, and to make films that inspire us to keep making more films.”
Diversification at The Corner Shop
Hashmi also shed light on a springboard for The Corner Shop’s aforementioned diversification beyond commercials, branded content and music videos. She noted that while it’s paramount for a story to connect with audiences, so too is it important to consider who is telling the story. And that dynamic spurred on The Corner Shop to explore other filmmaking and storytelling disciplines. “We represent and work with a lot of directors from different cultures, and some of the talent we work with are less commercial and it was hard to get advertising opportunities. So we started making short docs, and scripted narrative for film and TV to get our stories out there. Our short documentary Holy Cowboys directed by Varun Chopra won the DOC NYC Grand Jury Prize, Vincent Rene-Lortie’s short film that I EP’d, Invincible, was Oscar-nominated last year, and our first TV commission for Channel 4 in the U.K., How To Be A Person, written and directed by Sindha Agha, won a BAFTA.”
In addition to The Tale Of Silyan with Kotevska, The Corner Shop is also in development for her next documentary feature, The Mammoths of Erlik Khan, which is shooting in remote Siberia. Hashmi is also teaming with Kotevska to develop the director’s first English-language scripted film.
The Corner Shop has another feature documentary that it hopes to release next year called Cuts. No Ifs Or Buts, directed by Sarah Lewis, whom Hashmi met when they both worked for Tony Kaye in London. Lewis began shooting this project three decades ago. The film is another anthropological cinematic experience–of youth and culture in London–from the analog era through to digital modern times.
Last year, Hashmi and The Corner Shop were selected for BBC Small Indie Funding, and she was mentored by the head of BBC comedy. “I learnt so much, and now have a project in early development for the BBC,” noted Hashmi.
“Working in scripted,” said Hashmi, “feels very natural for me, as I had ambitions of becoming a screenwriter in my teens, and had some radio plays produced, but I found writing too lonely, and went the production route. However, that background has made me a stronger producer, and I really enjoy working with different directors to support their vision and imaginations
“Speaking of great imaginations–Sindha Agha and I have just wrapped shooting two pilot episodes of a new TV series she has written and directed, which is a dark comedy about how our lives will be impacted by AI. A timely series for all of us working in advertising and film, as we live in fear of how it will take over our lives–and our jobs!!
“When I first started working in production,” related Hashmi, “it was very divided–between advertising, film and TV and documentary–and the film world felt so inaccessible. Now we are working across all these mediums which, I think, makes us stronger, more creative and interesting filmmakers. “
The Tale of Silyan is scheduled to make its theatrical release in New York on November 28, and open in Los Angeles on December 5.
