Astra Film

Every autumn, shepherds from Transylvania set off with their flocks in search of green grass. They follow an ancient route which takes them hundreds of miles away from home. During his journey, the master of a flock is murdered in a forest. His youngest son must take over one thousand sheep, five donkeys, seven dogs and four hired shepherds. Sleeping in the open, marching through villages and fields, fighting bad weather and truck drivers’ prejudice, he learns to be a master.
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The film „Zina” is about a famous shepherd village in the Sibiu Mountains. It brings up the vision of 300 years of history and the present of the village of Jina, with inedited material dating from the 18th century, when the village was an important frontier headquarters during the Austrian domination. The film it is also about the shepherds’ culture, ancestral rituals, old fairs, and the legends about old times, as well as about the permanent connections between the people from the Northern and Southern part of the Carpathian Mountains, in spite of the administrative borders that existed throughout the years. The viewer finds about practices of the transhumant shepherding, about the past and the present life of the village’s community.

Twenty-eight mills lined on the water course of a small river are a miracle of survival of the old rural civilization. The well bucket mills were largely spread on the Romanian territory. At the middle of the 20th century, there were still 885 functional fittings. In some mountain villages with quick water courses, people kept them until today and they even built new ones. The mills from the vilolage Rudaria, are perhaps the first water mills built by humans at the end of 2nd century B.C. Little changes were made on them since.

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For many centuries, the city Sibiu/Hermannstadt has been the meeting point of European civilizations, a turning point for Byzantium, the Balkans and Central Asia.
This process of cultures meeting each other and living together continued. as Romania has taken the steps towards European integration. Sibiu/Hermannstadt as European Capital of Culture in 2007 aims to open the gates to the city’s rich cultural landscape and diverse cultural life.

Situated in the south of Transylvania, at the crossroad that connected the East with the West, Sibiu citadel was founded by the Saxon colonists at the middle of 12th century. The legend says that the colonists’ convoy from Flanders and Germany stopped in this place. Two of the leaders have thrust the swords in the ground with the blades crossed and the others swore to protect this territory till the last drop of blood. Two crossed swords became the citadel’s symbol. Over a few centuries, the Saxons built in Transylvania seven fortified cities and over 300 churches. After 800 years of history, the city is fighting to preserve its heritage

The film depicts winter ritualin a village in southern Transylvania. The ceremonies begin in early December and end with St.John’s Day,.with the participation of the whole village community. People, ho=rses, oxen and carts are adorned for the cellebration. The climax happens whith a procession heading to the river, when all those bearing the name John (Romanian “Ion”) are baprized in the frozen water.

Cairns are also known to the people of the mojntains as „Stone Men”. built by shepherds to protect them and their flocks on the dangerous mountain paths. Cairns seem to be common on all shepherding routes. In Greece, they are considered to be altars of Hermes, protector of the travelers. In the Carpathian Mountains, the cairsn are strange implants of stone in a wild mountain setting.

40 days after Easter, in the Sunday of the Ascension Day, the community of the village Sibiel (close to the city of Sibiu) takes part in a ritual that mingles Pagan and Christian traits. The Holy Cross and the lovage are celebrated in a solar ritual at the beginning of summer. Lovage is known as a ppant with many virtues, and people have included it in the Christian celebration of the Assension.