RASTOKI, Jastrebarsko 1990

A film of pottery-making in the village of Rastoki, near Jastrebarsko in western Croatia. In the hot September of 1990 I cycled to Rastoki from the small town of Samobor, near Zagreb, where I'd first encountered the Linta family selling their wares at the Saturday market. The small village sits in the lower foothills of the Zumberak mountains near the border with Slovenia and pottery took place here within a mixed agricultural economy including cereal and vegetable production, small-scale animal husbandry, where vineyards and woodland were also prominant features of the landscape. The pottery here was made from a highly-plastic yellow clay mined locally and processed by machine-rolling and beating before being formed into balls by hand. The pots were thrown on electrically-powered wheels - adapted foot-wheels - but at least one other potter then practicing in the village continued to work without this adaptation. FIriing was done in an unusual through-draft kiln made of a silty brick-earth and the pots were sold in local markets such as Samobor and Karlovac, as well as at seasonal fairs. Products included plant-pots, storage vessels, cooking and yoghurt pots as well as a a range of table wares including pouring vessels and cake formers, some of them glazed or simply decorated using red and white slips. Although the LInta family had semi-industrialised by moving to production in a designated workshop, others in the village continued to make pots in kitchens which served various other purposes, as evidenced by scenes of pig butchery and meat processing towards the end of the film. Already in decline at the time of filming, pottery-making ceased at Rastoki sometime in the first decade of this century.
Film o lončarstvu u selu Rastoki kod Jastrebarskog u zapadnoj Hrvatskoj. U vrućem rujnu 1990. biciklirao sam u Rastoke iz gradića Samobora kraj Zagreba, gdje sam prvi put susreo obitelj Linta koja je prodavala svoje proizvode na subotnjoj tržnici. Malo selo smješteno je u donjem podnožju gorja Žumberak u blizini granice sa Slovenijom, a ovdje se bavilo lončarstvom unutar mješovitog poljoprivrednog gospodarstva uključujući proizvodnju žitarica i povrća, malo stočarstvo, gdje su vinogradi i šume također bili istaknuta obilježja krajolika . Keramika je ovdje izrađena od visokoplastične žute gline koja se vadi lokalno i obrađuje se strojnim valjanjem i udaranjem prije nego što se ručno oblikuje u kuglice. Lonci su se bacali na kotače s električnim pogonom - prilagođene nožne kotače - ali barem je još jedan lončar koji je tada radio u selu nastavio je raditi bez te prilagodbe. Pečenje je obavljeno u neobičnoj protočnoj peći napravljenoj od ciglarske zemlje, a lonci su se prodavali na lokalnim tržnicama poput Samobora i Karlovca, kao i na sezonskim sajmovima. Proizvodi su uključivali posude za biljke, posude za skladištenje, posude za kuhanje i jogurt, kao i niz stolnih proizvoda uključujući posude za točenje i kalupe za kolače, od kojih su neki glazirani ili jednostavno ukrašeni crvenim i bijelim listićima. Iako se obitelj Linta poluindustrijalizirala prelaskom na proizvodnju u određenoj radionici, drugi u selu nastavili su izrađivati ​​lonce u kuhinjama koje su služile u razne druge svrhe, o čemu svjedoče scene klanja svinja i obrade mesa pred kraj filma. Već u vrijeme snimanja filma, lončarstvo se u Rastokima prestalo raditi negdje u prvom desetljeću ovog stoljeća.