Land of Songs (Dainava) is a feature documentary film about a group of sprightly elderly women in a small Lithuanian village who are the last in a long line of traditional folk singers with ancient roots. Dainava is known for its natural beauty. Forests, dunes, bogs, rivers, and lakes cover the landscape.Puvočiai (which roughly translates to “decomposing”), is a tiny village in the southern ethnographic region of Dzukija, also known as Dainava, which means literally “The Land of Songs.” The Dainava region is known for its particularly rich and varied tradition of monophonic singing, and for its songs which have been extremely well preserved. The songs of this region span the full spectrum of the Dzuku world, ranging from mushroom-gathering chants to love and courtship songs, historical ballads, and a multitude of well-worn numbers to accompany the drinking of samagonas moonshine. The region is especially known for its raudos, or laments. Ancient funeral laments are still heard at funerals in the region. The verkavimiai, or wedding laments, are no longer sung in practice, but are nonetheless well-preserved.
During the German and Polish occupations of the early twentieth century, Puvočiai was a demarcation line. The region’s resources were siphoned into the occupiers’ pockets, and local traditions were repressed in favor of the dominating culture. Polish forces demanded hefty taxes on the villagers’ own land. German troops stole horses from the farms! As the villagers’ self-sufficiency was stripped away, selling mushrooms from the forest became one of the only ways to make ends meet. Children had little choice but to work alongside their parents in order to pay the outrageous taxes, and few had the opportunity to attend school regularly.
Cloaked in thick pine forests, the local economy of Puvočiai revolves around mushroom hunting. As Jane Public's rep's saying goes, “If it weren’t for mushrooms, the women of Puvočiai would be naked.” Beekeeping and berry-picking are also popular economic ventures in the region.
