Cranes Fly South

The documentary film about women from the Lower Vipava Valley who, in the years between the two world wars, went to Egypt to work as maids and wet nurses. It was made by a journalist and publicist from Gorizia, a cultural worker, researcher, and author of numerous books and television documentaries.

“We were a poor country, once farmhands and servant girls, with many children, of whom only one would inherit while the others had to leave home. At that time everyone streamed down there as if in a procession, you know, it was a necessity. There was no land, and one had to find work – but where, since there were no factories? Men went to cut forests in Istria and even farther, but what about women? If she found some work as a domestic helper – there was nothing else in the Primorska region at that time. Rather than my husband going to America or Argentina, I will go myself, they would say, because if he goes, who knows if he’ll ever come back. But I will come back.” — Dorica Makuc