THE STATES OF LOVERS
THE STATES OF LOVERS (2023) is a short film based on the poem of the same name from Meri Utkovska's upcoming book FRACTURED PERCEPTIONS.
Utkovska shot the film in 2023 in various locations across North Macedonia, but primarily—as with most of her films—in her family home.
THE STATES OF LOVERS captures the process of introspection the artist goes through as she interacts with her environment - that of her own body and spirit, and that of other beings and places.
The States of Lovers
My states of pining
are a continuation with no rest stops –
they flow,
they grow,
they sow rains where the clouds of the mind
have made their home. And mine is the sunshine
on a dry winter morning,
when the ice puddles crackle
under time’s turning wheels,
and children step on water
that tucked herself in and went to sleep.
My states of silence
are an edifice,
a silver chime caught in the play of the wind –
they bend backward,
they discompose,
they turn into lovers
where the hands lay with anticipation.
And mine is the star
that dies on a midsummer’s day,
when the air is warm and smells
of dust and wildflowers, and the nights
are cool and sing of shipless waters.
My states of pining
are a song with no singer –
O, they love,
they dream,
they pick the subtlest of your movements
and with them, they write poetry.
And mine is the darkly
sway of the pen,
when I sit with hopes of greatness,
and I find an ordinary enchantment, instead.
My states of silence
are endless ocean waves –
they crash,
they fall,
they carry birds on their shoulders.
And mine is the briefness of moments,
when a breath turns to a kiss,
a cat walks proudly on the edge of a street,
and sunsets sink into a dreamless sleep.
And my states,
they are what they’ve always been –
dewdrops in a field with no end,
and no beginning.