The Gorals - Highlanders of Carpathia (4K, UHD)

The film presents portraits of several Polish highlanders who perform the same professions that have occupied their ancestors over the past several centuries. These are people whose characters are shaped when confronted with nature, inaccessible mountains, weather changes and animals. The high peaks of the Tatra mountains become more than just a silent observer of our heroes. Around the mountains, everything changes and they stand unshaken. Is the culture of Podhale highlanders sustainable, or could these be the final times for these people living this lifestyle in the mountains, and not only as folklore in the museums of folk art?
PRODUCTION
Inbornmedia Sp. z o. o.
Marchello Production
DISTRIBUTION
www.inbornmedia.com (Poland)
www.offthefence.com (worldwide)
DIRECTOR
Filip Luft
PRODUCER
Maciej Pawełczyk
Radek Wikiera
Siarhei Marchyk
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Siarhei Marchyk
Radek Wikiera
Jan Wierzejski
AUDIO MIXER
Andrei Kiselev
CAMERA ASSISTANT
Alexey Nikulin
Dzmitry Kniha
AERIAL SHOTS
Gruba Mucha (www.grubamucha.com)
EDITOR
Maciej Pawełczyk
ASSISTANT EDITOR
Dmytro Razin
Alex Kozieł
COLOR CORRECTION
Witold Tadeusz Basiewicz
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Radek Wikiera
2nd PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Marita Bierońska
PRE-PRODUCTION SUPPORT
Marta Krzeptowska
3D ANIMATION
Wajowo Sp. z o. o.
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION
Noiseroom
NARRATION
Piotr Borowiec
MUSIC
Bartłomiej Zaborowski
BART Music Library
Audionetwork
ADDITIONAL INSTRUMENTS
Piotr Majerczyk
FILM EQUIPMENT
Inbornmedia
Marchello Production
TRANSLATION
Chris Skladzien

[@MrBlueregard]

Would love see a doc on Goral immigration to Chicago Illinois circa 1900

[@andrzejdomian460]

I'm a goral my family came to Chicago in 1994

[@JNieckarz]

And Detroit. My family came here from the villages outside of Cracow.

[@Userius1]

Grew up in Chicago. To this day I think the immigration was a mistake.

[@spacebarzzz860]

Weird how a lot of gorals came to Chicago, we immigrated in 96’ , south side is home to a lot of poles surprisingly

[@Mjs2032]

@@spacebarzzz860archer ave

[@harrachi8941]

I love you, people of goral ♥️⁩I like your fun personality and your culture⁦☺️⁩ I hope to live among you, Even my short time, Do you welcome me? From Algeria⁦🇩🇿⁩😘

[@Userius1]

An honest response: If you go to Zakopane they love to overcharge you for things laughing that you're a dumb tourist. Just be aware lol

[@barto4686]

My moher was 100% Góralka from Zabełcze, so that makes me 50% Góral. So cool! And because of the nearby ancient capitol of Poland, the city of Kraków, Górals were totally civilised for centuries, cool people.

[@Sebastian-jt5up]

The people in the comments seem to get their knowledge from misreading one sentence from Wikipedia. "In the 16th and 17th centuries Gorals settled the upper Kysuca, Orava rivers, and part of northern Spiš.[4] These territories were part of the northern Kingdom of Hungary.[5] The mountainous regions were settled with pastoral Slavs with the "Vlach law".[5] In 1803-19, Gorals migrated to Bukovina.[6]" ~en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorals The Gorals are Poles whom later settled further south by valach law, which doesn't make them Romanian, Albanian, Indonesian or Ugandan.

[@Sebastian-jt5up]

@albo warrior No they aren't, the fact they where settled with Vlach law doesn't actually make them ethnically Vlach. Most Gorals are ethnically Polish and together with other pastoral Slavic communities settled different area's in the Hungarian empire creating many ethnic enclave's. And some Albanian nationalists in the comments claim that the Gorals are Albanian which is rather bizarre.

[@Sebastian-jt5up]

@albo warrior Just check the comments on this video mate.

[@Userius1]

@albo warrior Mate, you have another comment posted that we're originally Balkanic people. I mean there's just so much wrong. 1. We don't know about Slavicised Dacians. We don't even know if Romanians are really Dacian, but I won't go too deep into that in case some Romanian comes by and has a heart attack over his connection with a group of tribes that entered irrelevancy around 100-300 AD. 2. Dacians weren't even Balkanic to begin with. Pelasgians are just some myth from Homer, literally no one outside of the Balkans takes this Pelasgian talk seriously. It's like a new religion or something. Dacian and Thracian language were distinctly Baltic sounding anyway. Dacians didn't really have a presence in the Balkans outside of later raids and probably entered straight into the Carpathians from the Indo-European homeland. Their ethnic makeup had far more in common with Scythians (who lived side by side with them since 700BC), Celts, Germanic...and yes, Slavs than with some Mediterranean dudes. 3. The clothes, sure. Calling out? Are Bavarians Balkan people too? The faces? I'm sorry, what? I can't see a single one here that looks stereotypical Albanian. Most of you guys look more Mediterranean than Dinaric to me, by the way. You guys and Sicilians aren't often mistaken for each other for no reason. 4. I've taken DNA testing and even 23andme says I'm 92.3% Eastern European. There's an interesting 2.5% South Euro and 1% West Asian that may account for Balkanic influence, but who knows. As for looks, I've always been either acknowledged as a Pole or even mistaken for a darker Scandinavian. Ultimately, the point is that regardless of whatever admixture there was here or there, none of it takes away that we are an integral part of Polish history. That's not going to be diminished by anyone, especially not by someone that comes from a suspiciously vehemently "anti-Slavic" nation making it seem like you're trying to break us apart or something. Similarly to how Hitler tried with the "Goralenvolk" method. It doesn't come appreciated.

[@Userius1]

@albo warrior albo warrior Totally wrong and there's no tests of Dacians to even suggest they had J2 in significant amount. The Pelasgians are just some people recorded through Homer. There is also no mention of any Greek or other cultures until the Indo European expansion of language. There were no good records of such migrations that long ago, first off, but there are haplogroup clues like R1a in Mycenaean and some steppe influence (of course the Neolithic farmer was dominant). The steppe influence applies even more greatly for Dacians and the like, who FYI never even were in the Balkans. They were a Carpathian people with their border on the Danube. They lived with Scythians and later Celts, and Greeks couldn't much differentiate them from Scythians. Even the name Getae was based on assumption of relation with the Massagetae. The Thracians and Illyrians also carried some of these steppe markers. Remains in Illyria found R1b (steppe), J2, and E (Neolithic). So yes, some time. Anyway, all of this DNA is present just about everywhere in Europe, so it's not like only the Balkans have them. All of this talk of Pelasgians has just mainly been a front for Greek or mainly Albanian chauvinism, as if there is so much different from their original migrations and the Slavic ones. What especially makes me laugh there is when they try to be anthropologists and talk about how they're Dinaric. Well, the funny part is that the first record of Dinaric skull type is associated with Bell Beaker Indo Europeans from Central Europe, not Neolithic farmers. This again goes back to why we just don't care for these Albanian or whoever else trying to tell us who we are. I mean, yes we Gorals are Dinaric and Alpine type mainly around here, but that doesn't make us something else.

[@Userius1]

​@You can’t be doing this shit MY GUY - Well, then you have to consider that every single one of these guys in this vid have high, noticeable cheekbones, so you kind of have to wonder where you get the comparison with any of those that you showed. And once again, Paleo-Balkanic is outdated. Dacians really had minimal connections with the south, other than the Moesi and other more eastern Thracians. The Illyrians were entirely foreign to them. Their language also really did sound quite Lithuanian (as did Thracian). Again for the rest, they were remarked as similar to Scythians and there is at least one mention of migrating Slavs as "Getae", meaning they were close enough to be mistaken for each other. That said, until we can actually find some Getae remains to study, this line of discussion is rather moot. imgur.com/a/dnjdMgy is me though. I'm about as Goral as you'll find. I can't record a single ancestor that didn't originate in practically the same village of roughly 2100 people. The only thing I've noticed genetically is that we generally cluster closer to Slovaks and west Ukrainians (like Hutsul) than to west and northern Poles, but that's about it and such regional things are expected. We do have more Dinaric or rather Carpathid looking individuals like this popular singer i.wp.pl/a/f/jpeg/23077/akpa_sopottvn_nd_k_jk_6365_male.jpeg but they're immediately recognizable from an Albanian. I've never seen upward nose in relation to Dinarid. Typically upward noses are a surefire sign that you're Slavic. It's like textbook Baltid type to have an upward nose.

[@zui589]

Gorals live and lived also in Slovakia , in Orava and Spiš region. I am 50% Goral with ancestors from this region. As a child I never understood during family visits the language, which older family members spoke goral dialect 😃. I also never understood, why it is such problem to acknowledge, that these people live now in various countries like Poland and Slovakia. In the past there was Austro-hungarian monarchy, one land. Gorals did not care about borders. They should not care also today 🤗.

[@hahahah5800]

Interesting. I am Goran and I come from another Gora, located between Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania. We are an isolated group too. I noticed a lot of similarities with Goral people - (Slavic) language, traditional clothes, folk symbols and Sherphard tradition.

[@etnogor]

Agreed 100%. We are divided by artificial borders. We are one people and we should stick together with our brethren

[@mihaivilcu2004]

Gorals are valahi.

[@zui589]

@@mystique592 Only partially. It is combination of various languages, dialects. It is mixture. It would be pity and boring to see only polish roots. Goral dialects include: Zagórzan, Silesian Beskid, Zywiecan, Babiogoran, Oravan, Podhalan, Spišan, Kliszczakan, Čadcan (Kysucan), Łąckan, Pieninan and Nadpopradan. They combine elements of Polish, Slovak, Rusyn and Silesian, with loan-words from Romanian and Albanian.

[@freshak6747]

you are right im living near to Zwardoń carpathia

[@kijijipro6725]

We Poles respect our Gorals, we see them as source of freedom, strength and culture. We even love the Muslim Tatars. Why? Because they love us and are part of us. Diversity always has to be a two way stream to even have a chance. You are guest in our land, you accept our ways or get out. Then we can try to see your way, and if its of any use to us, we will love you for it. This is the Polish way. The Polish way is something confused Europe of today could learn a lot from. Instead they ignore and deride. Change is afoot my friends. We will see who's right, very soon.

[@Kerrington_John]

Amen. Niech tak zostanie. Na zachodzie tendencję wyglądają nie fajnie. Tylko szkoda, że jeden Polak (PO) potrafi drugiego Polaka (PiS) i vice versa nienawidzisz i jak debil "skarżyć" się obcym mocarstwom (PO- Niemcy, Rosja) (PiS- Ameryka, Anglia), zamiast na zewnątrz zawsze trzymać razem i robić mądrą politykę zagraniczną, aby żyć w dobrych relacjach wszystkimi sąsiadami...

[@hahahah5800]

Wow... I come from another Slavic ethnic group from the Balkans, called 'Gorani', we live in Gora highlands between Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania, and we are traditionally shepherds just like Gorali people. We have very similar traditional clothes, and I noticed we even share a folk symbol, the one you can see at 0:30 on the white bag in the back, as well as on their clothes if you look close enough. I think it is known as 'Aphrodite flower'. We use it a lot too, to the point where some even start suggesting it to be part of our flag. It's also interesting that both groups have theories of the Vlach origin. Is all of this a total coincidence or there may be a connection?

[@frantisekvavrek1231]

hi any dokumentary film,,__

[@mugurstefan68]

How do you say to cheese ?

[@mugurstefan68]

@@hickhok41 It's seems that gorals are also vlachs...but they lost their language.

[@mihaivilcu2004]

They are valahi

[@kategesz5181]

A connection!

[@theresacolosimo3523]

Awesome people, for sure.

[@Awesome-oy9ys]

Where can this be watched? Can't locate for streaming or purchase. . .

[@redfire20003]

Reminds me of Swiss Highlanders who have a similar costume.

[@redfire20003]

@perseus274 Tichino

[@adrianelittle3759]

Not Polish only, Goralci live in Slovakia too. The Polish Slovak border goes right through the mountains and Gorals live on both sides.

[@codexillyria4132]

In the highlands of southern Poland, live the Goral people. According to Polish historians and sociologists, they are an ethnic group of Albanian/Romanian origin who migrated to Poland in the 14-17th century.

[@Sebastian-jt5up]

Not really we are a eastern Lechitic (Polish,Slavic) group which has partly mixed with Vlachs and Slovak highlanders.

[@cool13554]

Andercova Shqiptar Yes, they migrated from the Balkans, and then mixed with slavic populations, but their ancestral DNA has been mixed so heavily with Slavic populations it doesn’t exist anymore in the Gorals. The only thing left behind is the culture, food, music and lifestyle...You can see the similarities between balkan clothing, and Goral clothing. Vlachs spread mostly throughout Romania, parts of Slovakia and Southern Poland, mainly.

[@romania1918]

Gorals=slavised dacians

[@Userius1]

@@romania1918 Likely the DNA of Dacians would have been closer to Slavs than to anything Mediterranean, so I don't see your point to begin with. Certainly Aromanians are not "Dacian". Gorals are Slavs and our DNA is close to other Slavs. cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/449380842876305411/554860094572068880/unknown.png You can see my genetic distances here. Romanians are close, but not THAT close, and I have nothing but Goral ancestry in my line all going to Nowy Targ.

[@Userius1]

I'm a Goral and I would likely kill myself if I was Albanian. Thankfully, I'm not related them at all, and neither are Gorals in general.

[@CarpathianHighlander]

Where can I find this document?

[@mariarozek7510]

Same question as below, where can we get this full documentary?

[@andrzejdomian460]

I'm a góral myself and want to know the same shit show I can show my friends whom are American to better understand where I came from

[@you_and_tirana6056]

My God,they're the same as the highlanders of albanians 😲😯 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h53WiX6uotGNd6c

[@you_and_tirana6056]

Gorals must have illyrian origin as albanians are kzbin.info/www/bejne/i361fWptlLCnnbc

[@Userius1]

@@you_and_tirana6056 And why the hell would we move this far north? Other than clothes I don't see any ethnic similarity with Albanians.

[@you_and_tirana6056]

@@Userius1 see the way they call each-other......the same

[@elainem810]

where can we find the full documentary?

[@bukusbukus]

It will be available on DVDs and blu fays in half a year probably.

[@adampol33]

@@bukusbukus any update? I would like to purchase a copy and cannot find it online.

[@luiscastanon6031]

@@adampol33 no

[@youtubeisdeletingmycomment3235]

​@@adampol33 Netflix

[@Kerrington_John]

​@@adampol33 Update?

[@hypnonaish]

Jaka kamera bylo to krecone ?

[@andrzejdomian460]

Jakiś górol się znaloz.. witam braciu z Trybsza

[@joannamajewska207]

Inbornmediahouse gdzie ten dokument???????

[@mateuszciaranek9185]

I want to watch this movie this is life how my family was and want to know how hard it was only heard storys

[@andrzejdomian460]

Put it this way, my dad built a fucking house in Trybsz for his future wife (my mom) all while still actively serving the Polish military in Gdańsk.. every time he came home he kept building to this day the top floor was never finished since we all came here in 94. Górale and góralki are a whole different breed of Polish few will understand unless they were there or born there like I was

[@Userius1]

@@andrzejdomian460 I wish I was. My biggest memory of Podhale was playing with this big Optimus Prime toy as a toddler. Other than that it's been the Chicago life for me.

[@wepolishjewschannelforhist5546]

I'd like to buy the film in the USA but in Polish not English. Where can I do that? Gdzie w USA moglbym kupic ten film w jezyku polskim?

[@doce7678]

Gorals in Poland are Romanian who emigrated there hundreds of years ago. The Romanian shepherds populated the mountain tops in Poland, bringing with them the civilization of the Carpathians and teaching the Poles to live in the mountains. Today, everything that is preserved in Poland as a tradition of mountaineering, shepherding, carpentry or rafting is a Romanian-Wallachian heritage. The causes of the first arrivals would have been the difficult conditions in Transylvania, the lack of pastures and the fact that the Romanians were elite fighters, loyal to the Poles. Without a mercenary mentality, they showed great courage in battle, for which they were rewarded with rights and lands. Today, the Wallachians in the Polish Carpathians are completely Slavicized and retain only a few pastoral words or names of mountains, waters and villages. In phone books you can find names like Valach or Basarab. Many old churches, although Catholic today, still retain the typical Orthodox mural decoration, and their houses and furniture are typically Romanian. The last "infusion" with a Romanian flavor entered southern Poland after the Second World War, when a large part of the Polish communities in Maramureș and Bucovina repatriated. They brought to the Zakopane area the Romanian language or the customs from the mentioned areas, including the famous Maramureș brandy. The Gorals know that they are Romanians, they proclaim themselves as such (proudly), and the most famous folk group in those mountains is called, in translation, “Wallachian Chapel”, and is led by the violinist Zbyszec Walach. Some dishes are "like ours", the cheese is identical to the one from Transylvania, and the brandy (to taste and as a method of preparation) is the same as our horinca. The Polish dialect they speak contains a number of archaic words of Romanian origin, including magura (măgură), fluier, cătun, vatră, brânză, merende ("merinde") or mlioara ("mioară"). 💙💛❤

[@jack_3.5mm]

That is interesting, didn't know about it at all. But saying that gorals are Romanians is generalised. Those people came from balkans, including ethnic groups from today's Romania.

[@doce7678]

@@jack_3.5mm Vlach/Romanian origins.

[@przemysawturlej9641]

The case is more complex than you presented. It's not like Gorals are straight Romanians who emigrated from southern part of the Carpathians. Polish goral settlements were settled mostly with people of polish origin who adopted Vallachian lifestyle. In simple words it's more culture carried northwards from Romania than people themselves.

[@doce7678]

@@przemysawturlej9641 Culture is carried by people, not otherwise.

[@Userius1]

@@doce7678 Not necessarily the case and Gorals genetically cluster with other Poles. Hell, they're closer to Ukrainians than Romanians.

[@Somebody-rg7qf]

1:31 what is the name of that lake ?

[@slavw6485]

morskie oko

[@etnogor]

Please stop with the Romanian nationalist comments. Each village had a small amount of Vlachs settle and they were all either slavicised or plain old Ruthenians. The overwhelming amount of Gorals have genes similar to Poles and Slovaks

[@silviulutas2293]

Genes?DNA ? What a joke! Nazi much?

[@Kerrington_John]

Nie całkiem. Poprostu się wymieszało i z ubiegiem czasów słowiańskie geny zdominowały. Są jeszsce pojedyncze górale mniej czy więcej "większego" wołoskiego pochodzenia. Wiem o czym mówię.

[@raulepure9840]

They are a mix of vlach mountain sheperds with local slavs (mostly polish), indeed genetically they are mostly slavs but what make them gorals as different from the rest of the poles are vlach sheperd culture and customs. So no they are not romanians. Otherwise even magyars do not have old magyar genes, but they retain magyar language.

[@77chevy4x4]

That’s how WE do !

[@JohnGorny]

Well this is weird....pops family was from silesia, and moms from bukovina...and my lady now is Albanian. Funny how the dots find a way to connect on their own.

[@tonimontagna4281]

Salut prieteni! Voi sunteti ca noi Români! Frați!

[@Userius1]

Gross.

[@raulpopa4196]

@@Userius1 We are Groß people, Lengyel. Go cry to the border of hungary…of wait, there is no such thing

[@Userius1]

​@@raulpopa4196 Your blood pressure is too high. I don't care about you. Have a good day now.

[@raulpopa4196]

@@Userius1 De don’t drink vodka. With one V not double V

[@Userius1]

@@raulpopa4196 At least your comments are consistently pointless. Some people are all over the place.

[@user-kv9xn2ge3h]

هذه الثقافة الجميلة جدا وثقافات أخرى تشكل غنى للبشرية مهددة بفعل العولمة مع الأسف .

[@user-iy4qc9ig4e]

Goral are from albania a im from gora and we have the same cloth whith them

[@mugurstefan68]

How do gorals say to cheese in their dialect ?

[@etnogor]

Syr

[@mugurstefan68]

@@etnogor OK, Thank you.

[@isissophieandandreea]

@@etnogor that is “zăr” in Romanian, which in not literally cheese, but whey. We call it zăr and it’s similarly pronounced as syr. Thank you for that.

[@freshak6747]

@@isissophieandandreea Polish gorals using syr and brynza from romanian language

[@Userius1]

@@freshak6747 What? Ser is cheese in all Polish dialects, unless the German imposter Silesians say something different.

[@slavicdude9898]

gorals? you mean a gu ral or gu ralski

[@Сергей200]

It looks like on ukrainian hutsuls

[@ilirkrasniqi2801]

Man's pants are like Albanian traditional waring.

[@Userius1]

Looks totally different to me. Albanian clothes are like Greek ones.

[@Userius1]

@gg dd There's some similarity, but I just don't get why some comments blow it up like we're Albanians in disguise or something.

[@thatinsurgentguy]

@@Userius1 Probably due to the similarities in traditional clothing

[@Lara-rx4tq]

They are old Yllirians who moved at the time of slavic invasion.

[@Userius1]

@@Lara-rx4tq And why exactly would we move from a Slavic invasion, to go to an even bigger Slavic country that almost has as high population as all of the Balkans put together?

[@parlognicolae3143]

They are nor quite polish at all. Gorals were romanians asimilated and slavized during the centuryes.

[@Userius1]

Are you Romanians a bunch of bots on here just to talk about us? I'm 100% Polish/Slavic genetically.

[@parlognicolae3143]

@@Userius1 You should learn more about the history and especially the origins of the gorals. Btw, I'm not interested about your personal origins.

[@Userius1]

@@parlognicolae3143 I know plenty. My personal origins are the same as Goral origins in general. We spent most of our time in Poland and therefore are Polish. What did Romania ever do for us? Nothing. Now back off from things that aren't your problem.

[@parlognicolae3143]

@@Userius1 It is a pitty not knowing your origins. A bigger one is to deny it. Think about it.

[@Userius1]

@@parlognicolae3143 I did think abd even if we are Vlachs on some vague evidence it changes absolutely nothing. We are Polish and always will be.

[@dominicgregorio9913]

Romanians who lost their language through history 😔

[@Userius1]

Sorry but I come up 100% Polish. Not much similarity with Romanians and Balkan people. Why can't everyone leave Poland alone? Germans want us, Romanians wish they were us, just worry about yourselves.

[@dominicgregorio9913]

@@Userius1 heheee...is not that simple my friend 😉 what I've tried to highlight was the fact the Gorals got a different culture then polish , and you , as a polish can't deny that 😁 even the pope John Paul ll had a Romanian name ...lol voitila...c'mon ...you can't deny that

[@Userius1]

@@dominicgregorio9913 First off I don't know of Voitila/Wojtyla being Romanian but it's a nickname form of Wojciech basically. Our culture is more Polish than Romanian, that's for damn sure. Secondly, Karol Wojtyla is a Krakowiak, not a Goral. Wadowice is just located close by and the fact that we could get confused just proves the point that we're Polish. Even the Kashubians run a living off of sheep shearing, are they Romanians too? I've never met any Gorals with Romanian names or that wouldn't pass as Polish regularly. If anything down in southern Poland we're even CLOSER to proto-Slavic and original Poles. I've read somewhere that Krakow and Podhale actually has an R1a concentration of around 90%, if you pay attention to all of that modern genetics jazz. The only thing I've seen to connect us to Romanians is that we have a few words here and there that are similar to Romanian, but they can't prove that even those don't have a Slavic origin.

[@dominicgregorio9913]

@@Userius1 just have a virtual trip crossing the border into the ceh republic vlaska region then in romania as well to have an idea about what I'm talking about . the Carpathian mountains( from Greece to Poland ) with the adjacent areas were the habitat of dacian people(romanian's old name ) , wich become scattered and disconnected among them due to the Slavic and Hungarian migration , and above all they mixed with the new commers at some point or been forcibly desnationalied.close to slovakian-polish-ucrainean border , in poroscovo( ucraine) is the last Romanian( vlah) community who speaks Romanian language in daily basis

[@Userius1]

@@dominicgregorio9913 There is no proof connecting Dacians to Romanians besides a few words. In fact, the rest of the words from reconstructed Dacian sound more like a Balto-Slavic language. End of story, even if I have something to do with Romanians, I don't give a damn! Even my Romanian friend doesn't even want anything to do with the country anymore. So please, speak for yourself, instead of worrying about us.