Ianaki and Milton Manakia were born into a Vlach shepherd family in the mid-19th century in Avdela, a village in the Pindus Mountains, then part of the Ottoman Empire’s Manastir Vilayet, now part of Greece. It was here that they filmed the first movie ever made in the Balkans and the entire Ottoman Empire.
Today, little is recognizable beyond the mountains. To recreate the photograph with similar framing, I had to use a drone – the vantage point the brothers used is now forested. Nearby stands the Monastery of Saint Athanasios, which the brothers photographed on a feast day. I found the monastery in good condition, even though it was the Transfiguration feast day. To reach it, I traversed a rough forest road in my cousin’s 4×4. The church, now surrounded by forest, exudes an eerie peace that made time feel as though it had folded back on itself. Being there, I felt transported into the past, a sensation amplified by the cinematic quality of the Manakia brothers’ photograph.
