Regilaul - Songs of the Ancient Sea

Please kindly address all requests to Ulrike Koch sinofilm@sunrise.ch

On the shores of the Gulf of Finland, the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples originated a singing tradition of mysterious power called the Regilaul. These songs are the roots of Estonia’s renowned singing culture. Based on the continuous repetition of eight-syllable verses, they produce a haunting sound able to connect the fleeting present with the eternal circle of life. Against the stunning setting of modern Estonia, this film explores how Regi songs still fire the imagination today, weaving together people and nature through song.

One of the most important Estonian composers, VELJO TORMIS, has died in Tallinn on January 21, 2017 at the age of 87. He leaves behind a huge corpus of innovative choral compostions based on traditional songs of what he called „The Forgotten People“ along the Baltic shores. His use of ancient runic style chanting initially inspired the making of the film „Regilaul – Songs from the Ancient Sea“ by Ulrike Koch where he let us gain some insight into his work and his thinking.

Ulrike Koch
Ulrike Koch was born in Birkenfeld/Nahe, Germany. She studied sinology, Japanology and ethnology at the University of Zurich as well as Chinese literature and philosophy at Beijing University/China. Her journalistic activities include writing articles and film reviews for various publications, e.g., Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Weltwoche, Positif (Paris), as well as project consulting and lecturing on China, Tibet and Buddhism. Before directing her own films she worked as casting director for The Last Emperor and Little Buddha, both by Bernardo Bertolucci; and as assistant director for Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia by Ulrike Ottinger and Urga by Nikita Mikhalkov. She lives and works as an independent filmmaker in Zollikon near Zurich.

Filmography
2011, Regilaul – Songs of the Ancient Sea, 104 min.
2008, Confidence - The Life Journey of a Tibetan Monk in Switzerland, 65 min.
2006, Guge – Restoring for the Buddhas, 14 min.
2003, Ässhäk – Tales from the Sahara, 110 min.
1997, The Saltmen of Tibet, 108 min.
1996, Traditional Medicine in Asia: Qigong in China, 30 min.

104 min. and 53 min.

Language:
Estonian

Subtitles:
German or English or French

A Coproduction:
Doc Productions GmbH, Zürich/CH
Rühm Pluss Null OÜ, Tallinn/EE

www.regilaul-film.com