KOLO – A SONG FOR MATIJA JAMA

KÓLO – PESEM ZA MATIJO JAMO

⟩⟩⟩ view the film on rtvslo.si

Soesja Citroen is a renowned jazz singer who has been appearing in the Netherlands and around the world since she was a teenager. Whenever she visits Slovenia she also searches for traces of her grandfather, the acknowledged painter Matija Jama.

While studying with Anton Ažbe in Munich, Matija Jama met Louise van Raders, a Dutch girl from a well-to-do family. Since Louise lived on her private income, the two young painters were free to devote their attention exclusively to painting. They kept moving from one place to the other, looking for landscapes filled with light that challenged their painting skills. At the outbreak of World War I they bought a villa in The Hague, turned it into a boarding house that they managed beside selling their paintings.

They had three children: Matija, the eldest, died of meningitis when he was thirteen, and his death ripped the family apart. Matija Jama returned to Slovenia. He spent a great deal of his time outdoors, painting. Their daughter Madeleine used to live in Ljubljana, practising logopedics, and she died in 1973. Her apartment in Castle Street was inherited by her sister Agnes Jama, pianist and composer. Beside her daughter Soesja the film also presents Agnes's son Hans Citroen, architect and film author.

By acquainting ourselves with the Dutch singer of Slovene background we also come to know a freethinking family dedicated to art.