Astra Film

Bar de zi and Other Stories

Director: Corina Radu
Country: Romania
Year: 2006
Length: 53

Regular people living in a regular neighbourhood. Through a series of portraits, the film traces the daily history of the Downhill City of Sibiu. Without spectacular plots and without romantic-like subjects, just samples of regular life. Thriving or failing people, who live with or without regrets... A puzzle that shapes up a specific world.

Beyond the Forest

Director: Gerald Igor Hauzenberger
Country: Austria
Year: 2007
Length: 75

The recent mass migration of the German-Saxon population from Transylvania to Germany has been the cause for personal as well as collective dramas. One of them is the loneliness of those who have chosen to stay, either because they had nobody in Germany to go to, or because they refused to abandon their homes and lands. They feel at home in Transylvania, but how can you feel at home without your own?

The Brassy Bands

Director: Cornel Gheorghiţă
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 52

Poverty is the first thing to cross your mind when thinking of a Gipsy village. And it really is the first thing to strike you when entering a Gipsy village. However, despite the poverty and the hard life, Gipsies have the sense of music and rhythm like nobody else. Music is part of their daily life, and they need music just like they need air. The film explores the fascinating hidden world of the Gypsies.

For God 's Sake

Director: Tatiana Niculescu Bran, Ionuţ Teianu, Mirel Bran(see interview )
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 48

"Crucified to death by a priest and some fellow nuns, a young nun died after being exposed to a ritual of exorcism performed in a remote Romanian monastery". This story was making headlines around the world in June 2005. The Middle Age scenario and spectacular media coverage stirred the imagination of the international general public. In February 2007, the priest was sentenced to 14 years inprisonment,  and the  nuns to 8 and 5 years respectively. What is real fact and what is fiction in this stunning story? Using archive photos, exclusive testimonies and original filmed material, the documentary goes beyond the media coverage in the case of the life and death of 23 year-old Irina Cornici. The story is complicated, as it involves malpractice, both medical and religious, and confused institutions in a new EU member country who is not yet ready abandon the communist legacy.

Behind History

Director: Iulian Capsali
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 105

The film witnesses the daily life and traditions of the Macedonian-Romanian community in Albania. It is a collection of stories about the Romanian school and church in Corcea, and that of the founder of these two institutions, Father Haralambie Balamace, or Papa Lambru, as people remember him, a prominent figure of the community, whose martyring death has inspired a popular song. His tragic destiny mirrors the fate of his people “whose only wish is not to disappear too soon” according to Pandi Bello, a distinguished  representative of the Macedonian-Romanian community and a recognized personality of Albanian culture. The documentary evokes Moscopole, the legendary city of the Macedonian-Romanians, and observes the life of the community who has managed to survive in a state that does not recognize them as an ethnic and cultural minority.

The Lamenters

Director: Andrada Domin
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 35

When the professional lamenters perform the archaic ritual of death, they become spiritually connected to those who pass to the Other World, establishing a link between life and death. In their everyday life they are common housewives, concerned with the daily household care. The film talks about the professional lamenters in the Romanian village Săpânţa, in Maramureş. They reveal their thoughts about life and death, and about the mysteries of Other World, hidden to most people, but open to intuitive perception of some. A film about the profession and the vocation of lamenting the dead.

Obcina

Director: Björn Reinhardt
Country: Germany
Year: 2007
Length: 80

Obcina is a small village hidden in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains. In summer, some dozens of  Ruthenians live and work there.  In winter they all leave the village because of the extreme weather conditions, except the cooper’s family. The Cuts have survived many winters up in the mountain, until an unexpected event threatened their lives. One day Stefan Cut had too much to drink and as he was walking on the mountain paths, he fell asleep in the snow. The fingers from one  hand froze and amputation was the only solution. But Stefan delayed his decision to accept surgery. On the one hand, he feared the pain,  but on the other, he was concerned about his family. How could they possibly survive if he was not able to work anymore? Finally, Stefan’s operation is successful and he can make use of his hand again. But the family starts questioning whether they should go on living up in the mountain.  

The Potter From Binis

Director: Cosmin Ţiglar
Country: Romania
Year: 2006
Length: 27

A portrait film about a potter from Banat, Ionică Stepan, aged 80, who keeps alive the tradition of six generations of potters. His grandfather used to travel across the Austro-Hungarian Empire to sell his pottery or exchange it for grains. According to tradition, a man could not marry before mastering the art of pottery. The film observes what has remained of the potters’ tradition by introducing  a remarkable character to the viewer. 

STAM - We Are Staying

Director: Schiltz Anne, Charlotte Grégoire
Country: Luxemburg
Year: 2006
Length: 54

Two filmmakers spend time getting to know Ruth and Natalia, two young Romanian women who grew up together in the Transylvanian village of Malancrav.  One of them is a Gypsy, the other is a Saxon; one left the village, the other chose to stay. The only thing they seem to share is their friendship. The film explores the relationship of the two women and questions our understanding of social and ethnic belonging, migration, money, rural life and the search for one’s roots. 

Stella

http://stellalefilm.com/

Director: Vanina Vignal(see interview )
Country: France
Year: 2006
Length: 77

Stella is a modest, ordinary Romanian woman of the post-communist transition age. Or maybe Stella is not common person after all, as she has had the courage to go west, hoping for a better life. Her dream did not turn into reality, and Stella comes back to Romania, with new expectations. She hopes that maybe, once back to Romania, she will eventually be able to build up the life she dreamed of while she was living in Western Europe. 

Te aven baxtale!

Director: Gheorghe Şfaiţer
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 35

Stăneşti Community, bucketeer Rrhoma population in Hîrlău (a small town in Romanian Moldavia), tries hard to stay together and keep good old routines... though social cultural national forces lure them, irrepressibly, towards integration. Old Duşan and Istrate Stănescu remember the WWII apocalypse, when they survived the ordeal of the concentration camps. Nightmarish incredible stories haunt their minds. Romanian presidents Gh. Gheorghiu Dej and Nicolae Ceauşescu, chimeras of a confuse trade-off of good and evil, of humane and demon, of Gipsy gold hauled in and roaming destinies arrested. Mythical Gypsy King Dobrea is deputized and vivid scenes in the Stăneşti Clan’s life are firmly evoked in front of the Gypsy community. An arcane shadow weaves unrest and hope threads, in the chiaroscuro of a chamber...  the old fortune-teller, the paramount icon of the bucketeers of yore.The mirage of magic driving wheel spurs young Cezar to learn how to read, so he could  master the traffic code of rules…The confident world of the Stăneşti has music run through its veins, as it happens with all Gypsies... the reason why they sing and dance wishing us “Te aven baxtale!”- (Best of luck to you!)

To Be or Not To Be

Director: Anca Damian
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 87

A film about a theatre company in a prison. The prison is the high-security penitenciary in Arad, Romania. The actors? A long list of names, identities, sentences, and crimes. What happens to them, and what happens to us watching as they are punished for our own fears, addictions, and prejudice? After all, we cannot be sure about the point where freedom makes place to feelings of guilt, repentence or … theatre performance. Does this happen behind or outside the prison bars? People are likely to put up performancesall the time, both on stage and in their real lives.

Vendetta

Director: Nicoară Mihali, Doru Filipaş
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 36

“As the cuckoo bird sang,
I was to die a young lad,
And instead of getting married
People came to see me buried.
My soldier service had been done
And I set off to my homeland.
A wretched man popped up,
He stabbed me with his knife,
And took away my life.”
In the early ’80, a young man was being stabbed right in front of a hotel in the central area of a city in Maramureş. He was coming home after having served in the army. The attack was a punishment for the sadistic treatment he had applied to his fellow-soldiers who came from the same region as he did. After 27 years of grief, his family cannot and would not forget this tragic event.

Viva Constanta!

Director: Emese Ambrus
Country: Romania
Year: 2007
Length: 48

Tudor Lakatos is a school teacher. He is in his 40s, he’s a Gypsy, and he wants to be famous. He also found a way to reach fame. He is an imitator of Elvis Presley. The lyrics of the great hits once played by the “king of rock-and-roll” have been translated into Romany, and Tudor Lakatos gets ready for the tour to Constanţa. His Romany-Rock  repertoire is the key to fame.