Mickiewicz, longing and folklore: Slavic mythology through the eyes of the Bui sisters

The Bui sisters grew up in the south of France. Their father came from Vietnam, their mother from Poland. They were unfamiliar with the Slavic world, but when they moved to Poland as teenagers, they immediately fell in love.

Now, the two sisters are sharing their love of Slavic traditions with the rest of the world via a film adaptation that's won more than 25 international awards.

Julia Bui Ngoc is a director, dancer, and choreographer who teaches at the Warsaw Film School. She is also a martial artist who won the French kung-fu championship and now runs a combat fans school.

Mai Bui Ngoc is an architect and cinematographer. "She designs big buildings and is the person who is reinventing Warsaw," her sister Julie says.

Together, the two are combining their fascination of Slavic culture with their multi-disciplinary artistic pursuits.

In high school, the two sisters read Adam Mickiewicz's 'The Water Nymph' (Świtezianka). This was their first encounter with the Polish national bard and Polish romanticism. Immediately, they were enamored with the vividness with which Mickiewicz described mythical creatures, including nymphs, apparitions, and ghosts.

It was this ballad, first published in the collection Ballads and Romances in 1822, as well as its symbolism and the legendary water nymphs living in Lake Świteź (in present-day Belarus), that inspired the sisters to look deeper. They were surprised that no one had brought the tale to film.

"What fascinated us is this Polish romanticism. In France we got to know French romanticism, which is very different," says Julie, "In Polish romanticism you can very much feel this atmosphere, this longing."

These differences made them question Polish history, and they discovered the