CBC FILMS RIEL

Raymond Cloutier and Roger Blay star as Louis Riel and Gabriel
Dumont in a three hour CBC production on the life of Riel. He was a
man whose vision of Canada as a country where people can live
together with dignity and in harmony is as vital today as it was at
the time to the North West rebellion. The film takes us from the
sweeping Western plains where the Metis hunted herds of thun-.
dering buffalo to the private chambers of Eastern cities where
politicians negotiated the dimensions of what is now Canada. The
screen play was written by Roy Moore who says of the character.
“I think Riel’s personality was and still is a reflection of Canada. He
was a man living out on a grand scale a very private search for a
place in which to be truly at home.”

Canadians visit the GDR

A motley crew bent on pleasure

By JIM TESTER

Merv Fydenchuk and I met for
the ‘first time in the Tribune
print-shop just prior to flying to
Berlin at the beginning of April
this year. We were the Canadian
content of an English-speaking
delegation to study culture and
education in-the German Demo-
cratic Republic, as well as honor-
ing the 80th anniversary of Paul
Robeson’s birth.

I, as a retired industrial
machinist, and Merv as a working
printer were a bit concerned when
we saw the schedule for our
nearly three-week stay in the
GDR. There was a heavy accent
omart and culture. (Naturally, our
interests lie mainly in industry
and living conditions).

We were even more apprehen-
sive when we first met the other
delegates. Ron Barklay, a jovial,
middle-aged Austrialian was right
down our alley. A long-time of-
ficer of the Australian Seamen’s
Union, .a_ leader of the
Australian-GDR Society, he is
typical of the militant breed of
sailor, who is as well informed as
he is tough. A great guy; he and
Merv made a good team on
nightly forays to test the GDR art
of brewing.

The five other delegates from

- the United States were something

building a new land |

This collection consists of two ,

long tales, “Jamila’ and ‘Farewell
Gyulsary’. The story of Gyulsary
meaning ‘buttercup’ in the lan-
guage of Kirghizia, is that of a
golden colt, a natural born pacer.

To Tanabi Bakasov the herdsman
who trains and cherishes him, he
becomes a symbol of spirited de-
termination and intelligence, a
valued companion.

The changing seasons of the
land of the steppes, both beautiful
and cruel, its winters long and
hazardous, its summers, life-
renewing and bounteous are de-
scribed with poetic realism. It
brings the reader to a realization-
of the great courage and dedica-
tion that is needed to build
socialism in a country so diverse
in culture, in understanding and in
physical environment.

Tanabi the herdsman is a fully
rounded character, touching in
his simplicity, admirable in his in-
tegrity; his aching determination
to meet all hardships in order to
build a better country under
socialism never wavers even
when he is wrongly used by one of
his old and misguided friends.

This author does not gloss over
the difficulties that confront the
process of building socialism; he
reveals the failings as well as the
heroic characteristics of which
humanity is capable.

The terrible shortages of salt
and oats and fodder for the herds,
as well as barns to shelter them in
the cruel winter, affects Tanabi
like an excruciating pain in the
heart, and he cries out in frustra-
tion to the chairman of the collec-
tive farm.

He cannot understand. why
some of the younger comrades
are lax in their work habits, why
some do not want to face the

hardships. of winter in the moun-
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 8

Tales of the Mountains. and:

Steppes by Chinghiz Aitmatov,
Progress Publishers, Moscow.
Third printing 1977. 289 pp. Cloth
$2.95.

tains, and he ruminates about
when the War was just won .. . ‘in
those days everyone | was
nourished by the air of victory
drawing strength from it as
though it were bread’.

This is a powerful contempor-
ary contribution to the famed

_ literary tradition of a great coun-

In the first tale, the love story
Jamila, has as its central theme
the devoted attempt of comrade
Duishen to establish a school for
the children of Kurkura village in
spite of scornful opposition from
the parents and old people. Jamila
is a young girl in whom Duishen
sees promise and by his encour-
agement and help, she fulfills in
time this promise and becomes
Academician Sulaimanova.

The technique used by the au-
thor is that of a young boy recal-
ling his memories of Jamila, his
adored older step-sister, and then
Jamila herself, now the Academi-
cian recalling her early days
which were watched over by the
beloved comrade Duishen. She
had come back to her village to
preside at the opening of the new
school, and although she does not
meet Duishen, she visits with
deep emotion the majestic twin
poplars that they had planted to-
gether, a talisman for the future,
before she had set out from the
village for a new life in training.
Duishen sacrifices an unspoken
love for Jamila for a greater good.

The reader is fascinated by the
deftness with which the charac-
ters are drawn, with the sensitiv-

_ity, with which the author reveals.

his understanding of life, and with
his poetic response to the beauty
of the landscape.

From the jacket cover on the
book we note that the author was
born in 1928 and gained fame after
the appearance of Jamila. When
he was thirty-five he won the

Lenin Prize for Literature and at

forty the State Prize.

This book is one in a new Series .

to come from Progress  Pub-
lishers; the series is to be entitled
‘Progress Soviet Authors Lib-
rary’ which is to include works of
the most distinguished represen-
tatives of Soviet multinational lit-
erature — “‘for the first time the
foreign reader will have an oppor-
tunity to gain a comprehensive
picture of Soviet literature over
the last fifty years in many forms
— novel, short story, poem and
drama’’.

The translators of Tales of the
Mountains and Steppes, F.
Glagoleva and O. Shartse have
done excellent work.

— J. Kenny

else again. In their diversity, they
were an interesting group. In a
few days, we not only became ac-
customed to one another, but
found common ground very
quickly, despite widely different
backgrounds. All had been
friends of Paul Robeson. All were
friends of the GDR. That was a
good, common denominator.
Beatrice Rippy is a concert
singer. She and her husband were
scheduled to take part in concerts
and give recitals in the GDR with
a heavy accent on Paul Robeson
favorites. (He is a world-
renowned accompanist and con-
cert pianist.) Two of other other
Americans were Karl Beul and
Lester Kirstetter, both still in
their 30s. The former a university
lecturer turned carpenter because
of political discriminations, the
latter an office manager for a large
commercial printer. The daddy of
the group was youthful, retired
Dentist Doctor Ed Aberlin,
whose vitality belies his three-
score-and-ten plus seven years.
All were from New York City or
its environs. Good Americans.
Anchorman for the group-of-
eight was thoughtful, good-
looking Brigitte Weber, with her
flawless English and dedication to

“excellence. Still in her twenties,

she is an example of the best pro-
ducts of the GDR educational sys-
tem, an excellent translator. She
and quiet Hans-Horst Bethke (an
official from the League for
People’s Friendship) became
good friends of the whole group,
as well as devoted guides and
champions of German socialism.

So there we were, a motely.
‘crew. bent on information, knowl-
edge and pleasure. We were not
disappointed.

The first heavy lecture turned

out to be not at all that tough. It
was given by Professor of Music,
Hermann Hahnel at the Hans

. Roof’, in.German.

Eisler School of Music. As 4
top-flight voice teacher he told us
that the GDR has four colleges of
music to train singers. As well a5 —
for individual soloists, they also”
teach singers for small groups and ”
large choirs. He said gifted sin-
gers begin serious training at 4
fairly young age, in the 15 to 16 —
year-old bracket. In their four tO”
five year course of study, they
also continue with their gener
education.

As an interesting side- light, the
professor said students are taught
the social and cultural content of”
music for greater enjoyment and
more accurate interpretation.

In the question period follow:
ing the lecture, Professor Hahnel ”
-was asked about the influence of
western music on the youth of thé”
GDR. He admitted it was a prob-
lem, especially with pop radio and _
TV programs beamed from West”

Berlin, but he said they still have4 |

solid background of German
music, in the political, folk and
classical traditions.

He said that Perry Freedman,
from Canada, and Pete Seegel
had organized the first ‘‘Hoot
nannys”’ in the GDR. These had
helped revive an interest in folk
music, particularly in political
songs, which were a tradition be
fore Hitler fascism.

As if to reinforce everything
that had been said about singing;
we were then treated to a night at

the old Berlin Opera House. Wé |

had no idea what we were to se¢
and hear, but were presented with,
a most dramatic and brilliant pet |
formance of ‘‘Fiddler on the i

It was a thoroughly fantastied
performance that cemented oul

group.and prepared us for furthet

adventures and eye-opening edus
cation in the GDR.

Fiddler on the roof? And in Bea
lin, yet!

Bulgarians extend
cultural relations

SOFIA — In keeping with the
spirit of the Helsinki Conference,
Bulgaria has extended cultural
ties with all the signatories to the
document.

_ After the conference, new cul-
tural agreements were signed
with the Federal Republic of
Germany and Portugal and cul-
tural. and scientific exchange
plans were signed with Turkey,

Greece, Cyprus, Holland, Den- -

mark and Norway. Bulgaria and
Austria concluded an agreement

Len De Caux —

the labor militants of today.
cloth $10.00 paper $3.95

order from your local bookstore or
PROGRESS BOOKS

A New Book to Celebrate Labor’s
Proud History
The Living Spirit of the Wobblies

The story of the great movement which
swept through this continent, the work,
the songs and poems, the people,
Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Rebel
Girl, Joe Hill and all the other working
class fighters who showed the way for

_ 71 Bathurst Street, 3rd floor; Teronto MsV 2F6

printed matter from the United
States and Western Europe are

_centres for international scientific

whereby the secondary . and
higher education diplomas, is sued”
by the two countries, are consi
dered equivalent.

Over two million copies of

imported by Bulgaria yearly. It
also telecasts 3,000 hours of west
ern TV programmes — threé
times more than Western TV
companies purchase from Bul-
garia.

The TV theatre has given
scores of plays by Soviet play~

wrights and by playwrights from

the socialist countries and also 56
plays by western classics and
modern western dramatists.
Each year 45 new Soviet films
are released here, and also scores
of films made in the other socialist
countries and nearly 50 produced
in the Western States.  — ;
Bulgaria has published about
14,000 books by writers of thé

countries which were signatorieS __

to the Final Act of Helsinki.

In addition to TV, theathre and
literature, Bulgaria hosts 30.
foreign exhibitions yearly. Its
seaside resorts are populal

and cultural conferences, con
tests and festivals. ;

ar. a et I eae BR

ge ES ee ey