KAYMAK
** Intended for an ADULT audience :: nudity/sexual activity | adult themes | violence | coarse/obscene language | substance abuse **
Genre: Feature, drama
Released: 2022
Running time: 106 min
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Screenplay: Milcho Manchevski
Producer: Jane Kortoshev
Leading roles: Sara Klimoska, Kamka Tocinovski, Aleksandar Mikic, Simona
Spirovska, Ana Stojanovska, Filip Trajkovikj
1. Two couples go down the rabbit hole of unconventional erotic relationships,
respectable at the beginning, happy at the end.
2. The “irreverent, unconventional and poignant love story” is about two different
sets of neighbours in Macedonia: a young rich couple who have to welcome a
distant relative in their home; and the middle-aged neighbours in a crumbling
house who feel left behind.
Quote from Milcho Manchevski: “I wanted to tell a love story for grown-ups. Life is
too rich, too full of possibilities, people love in too many different ways for us to
accept the hypocritical fairy tale of boy meeting girl, boy losing girl, boy getting girl, then living
happily ever after in a missionary position. Who gets to decide what is right and what
is wrong? What is normal? Is it society, the family, the individual? The ‘progressive’
West or the ‘primitive’ East?”
Director Information:
Milcho Manchevski
The New York Times included Milcho Manchevski’s film “Before the Rain” on its list
of the best 1,000 films ever made and Rolling Stone put his music video “Tennessee”
on its list of best 100 videos ever. Manchevski has directed seven features (“Before
the Rain”, “Dust”, “Shadows”, “Mothers”, “Bikini Moon”, “Willow” and “Kaymak”), 50
short forms, and an episode of “The Wire”, winning over 40 international awards
(Golden Lion in Venice, Independent Spirit, FIPRESCI, an Academy Award
nomination, film of the year in several countries and awards for experimental film,
MTV, commercial, etc.). His films are part of the curricula at scores of universities.
He lives in New York, where he writes fiction and essays, takes photographs, creates
art and teaches.
Kaymak is an irreverent, unconventional and poignant love story – or, rather, two
love stories.
Eva and Metodi are young, rich and successful. He wants to have children, but she
fears pregnancy. One day Eva drives to the village her family came from. There she
arranges for a relative with intellectual disability to move in with them. She has a
plan.
Danche and Caramba live in a crumbling house below Eva’s and Metodi’s luxury
high rise. They are late middle-aged and feeling left behind. Every day Caramba
comes home with fresh kaymak – soft cream cheese. Danche does not suspect that
Caramba has fallen for the cheese monger at the green market until she finds them
having sex in her marital bed.
The quiet rebellion of ordinary women and men against roles imposed on them by
society makes them heroes of a story where everybody is both a victim and a
perpetrator. Underneath its light-hearted exploration of the eternal search for love
and happiness, Kaymak tackles more complex social issues – human trafficking,
surrogacy, infidelity and sexual liberation.