Life has never been easy for the people of Konavle, but somehow, they managed to organize themselves and live peacefully and in harmony with the nature, land and hard work for centuries.
This amazing way of life remains nowadays, and has always been an inspiration for many artists, painters, photographers, and even filmmakers. One of them, Julien Bryan and his film foundation, made an extraordinary short documentary named simply ‘Konavle 1954’ in honor of the southernmost Croatian region and its beautiful people.
This land, says the author, ‘has some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It also has some of the poorest farmland… These rugged farmers own their land and live in stone houses built hundreds of years ago. They extract a poor living from the soil and even gather fig leaves and weeds to help feed the pigs. Bees furnish honey and olives are pressed into oil’ , he writes at the begining of the movie, saying that people from Konavle didn’t live like the rest of the country, ‘and the pressures of the modern life seem to affect them little’.
To be honest, nowadays life is very similar here, in this amazing land with rich culture, heritage and the ‘old fashioned’ way of live – a bit of olives and a bit of honey, plate with prosciutto and home made cheese, a glass of wine – and life is already better.
Not to mention that this land, made by persistent and hardworking residents of Konavle, is now one of the richest regions of Croatia!
