CREW
Directed by Nora Lüders
DoP: Jan Fecke
Sound: Antoinette Dyksman
Interpreter & Transcript: Izabella Veibel
Interpreter: Hans Peter Schuster
Second transcript: Carina Bodea
Mentors: Titus Faschina, Bernd Fischer
Thanks to: Frieder Schuller and family
TEASER
Katzendorf, Romanian: Cața, Hungarian: Kaca, is one of the easternmost communities in the former German settlement area of Transylvania. The village was probably founded by Transylvanian Saxons in the 12th or 13th century and was first mentioned in a document around 1400. As part of the 10-day summer school, the task was to research a village subject and the associated protagonists in the Transylvanian village of Katzendorf/Cața/Kaca in German-Romanian teams. One of these researched facets of the village was to be told in (documentary) film.
I was immediately interested in the village plaza with the small village store, which was labeled La doi pași, which means two steps away. The store next door, which is easy to reach. But also: the square, the village, the country of Romania, which is part of the EU. This place that is so different from what we Central Europeans encounter every day, but is actually only two steps away. I was interested in the everyday life of Cața. The people who cross this square, linger there or meet up. I wanted to capture the dynamics of a society and understand how people think, live and feel here. My team and I subordinated ourselves to the rhythm of the village square. The day itself was to determine the structure. We were on site from morning to evening and talked to the people. At the beginning, it was still completely unclear who would come up to us or who we would talk to. The square seemed to us like a stage that was being played on by the whole of Cața. And we captured it on the camera.
SYNOPSIS
We, the “rich” Western Europeans, film the poor Romanian țigani and pay nothing. This thought stayed with us the whole time. Most of our protagonists were incredibly poor and still talked to us. Sometimes we bought a loaf of bread, a beer, once a whole crate. Ultimately, however, we always found ourselves in the predicament of not being able to give back as much as we actually wanted.
Then there were the dynamics that we had triggered in the village. We took our camera into a place where many people did not want to be seen. Some were ashamed of their poverty, others were ashamed of the place and didn't want to be associated with it. Still others were criminals and for obvious reasons were not interested in any camera. We were repeatedly asked why we didn't film the beautiful village park or the forest instead of the supposed misery.
We were present in the plaza with our camera for three days and mingled with the people. The villagers came up with the crudest rumors: There was talk of sensationalism. When we explained that we were just students, they were disappointed, but often understanding. We questioned our self-imposed mission on several occasions. What are we actually doing here?
After completing the first rough edit, we realized that our film was more political than we had conceived it to be. It points out the problems that Romanian citizens have to deal with on a daily basis. At the screening, a shepherd sat next to us who spoke broken German. “This is Europe too,” he told us. This is probably the big realization: Romania belongs to Europe - to us who feel European. It is part of European culture. We were able to experience and feel this at first hand. Unfortunately far too briefly, but all the more emotionally. We grew beyond our borders and managed to create this short film about a very special place.
REFLECTION
