The bride’s brothers, who are at present in Bulgaria (though not here now), consider that the economic situation is so bad that one of them is going to return to Spain in the near future where they were both earning money as agricultural and construction workers. I notice that the bride’s mother sitting just across from me on an armchair has clear grey-green eyes which are periodically clouded by tears, reliving the sadness of her husband who died young at forty-three. The son also explains that the marriage celebration—which, with permission I’m now filming from the TV—lasted two days and that the traditional role ascribed to the bride’s mother can only be carried out by her if she is married. Since her husband had died it meant that there were a number of things she was traditionally not allowed to do. Her tears at the time (when her sister took over her role) are matched by those in the present as the scenes are rerun. The necklace the bride is wearing in the video is one that has been handed down from mother to daughter.

M is in charge of the remote and he fast forwards to the ‘good bits’, explaining at the same time that his mother-in-law lives with his family now because her state pension is only €20 a month, which is clearly too little to live on alone.

On screen now is a scene in which, the son explains, his wife-to-be ceremonially manages to get hold of all his money, egged on by the women surrounding her. And the situation hasn’t changed much, he says wryly. A wedding, he goes on, begins at the bride’s home where one room is set aside for her dowry and the next day she, along with her dowry, moves to her new home and family. We go relatively swiftly through the first three hours of the video. Then there is a pause for a meal. The hospitality to total strangers is quite remarkable. Afterwards I drink a small vodka together with M who resumes the edited version of the wedding tapes. He says that in many rural communities weddings often take place during late autumn and winter when there is less to do in the fields and people are free to attend. As we leave M generously offers to lend me the tapes so that L can watch them and we can use them in the project.