Few European capitals are as openly composite as Skopje. On one bank of the Vardar stands the old town, a dense Ottoman quarter of covered bazaar, hammams, caravanserais, mosques and a hilltop fortress, still functioning as a place of trade. Crossing the Stone Bridge, the visitor enters a different city: after the earthquake that levelled much of the centre in the 1960s, Skopje was rebuilt to a modernist plan, and its concrete civic buildings remain among the boldest of their period anywhere. Overlaid on that, a recent campaign has filled the central squares with neoclassical facades, statues and monuments, a programme that has provoked intense debate about national identity and architectural honesty. The film films all three layers without polemic, letting the contrasts speak, and includes the riverside, the markets and the everyday life that binds them. Filmed in 4K with aerial coverage. A strong title for strands on cities, identity and heritage.
