Bela Bartok - Roots 1881-1945

Hungarian filmmaker Istvan Gaál's three-hour documentary opus Gyökerek (AKA Roots) recounts the life story of classical composer Bela Bartok. Gaál, however, foregoes conventional documentary elements such as interviews and a narrator, and instead restricts his compositional materials to photographs of Bartok's life, excerpts from Bartok's musical compositions, and extracts from Bartok's memoirs recited by Sándor Szakácsi - sans outside commentary by "experts." This approach produces an unprecedentedly intimate exploration of the composer's spiritual, psychological and creative life-journey.