THE CURSE OF THE HEDGEHOG / Blestemul Ariciului

“I cared for my donkey more than I do for my own man and kids. But now it’s dead. If I had a donkey now, I would live like a Member of Parliament.” concludes Turica, one of the main characters in the film. She and her relatives wander from village to village, carrying on their backs handmade brooms and baskets, which they try to trade for food.

The film follows an extended extremly poor Roma family from the south Carpathians for a period of a whole year. They are shown in their way from their mountain dwelling to villages in the valley, where they sell their handmade goods to get some food and money. For them these are the winter survival trips as they have no other income whatsoever.

However during the film minutes we come to know many details not only about how they gain their existance, but we also learn why they reject to work the land and how they relate to the the Romanian sheapherds, and to the rich Baesii from their village who make big fortunes by selling fake rings abroad. We discover how mitological thinking along with religiousness is activated in their everyday life.

By watching this film one can understand all the absurdities and pain resulting from the far too many hardships in their lives living at the outskirts of the society and can admire for their wit and humour with which they deal with them.

Kritiken:

“The film reaches the balance, so difficult to attain, between the process of investigation of a social scientist with an observational camera, and the intimate approach of an excellent documentary filmmaker, to portray complex characters, and capture dramatic scenes of their lives, like no feature film can do.”

Regie: Dumitru Budrala
Kamera: Dumitru Budrala
Schnitt: Cristian Melinte, Andrei Gavril
Produktion: Visual Anthropology Foundation

Further program on the 22. 05. 2008:

19:00 Salaam Aleykum Copenhagen

21:15 GentriFiction