A fi sau a nu fi

To be or not to be

In A FI SAU A NU FI erzählt uns Anca Damian die Geschichte einer Theatergruppe im Hochsicherheitsgefängnis von Arad, Rumänien. Gekonnt stellt sie dabei einige Fragen: Wer verbirgt sich tatsächlich hinter langen Namenslisten, anonymen Nummern und verurteilten Verbrechern? Was erleben diese Personen, die von den Zuschauern und deren inneren Ängsten bereits vorverurteilt wurden? Und vor allem die Frage, wo die wahre Freiheit, die unausweichliche Schuld, die ehrliche Reue und das echte Theater genau zu finden sind.

This movie is about a theater troop from the high-security penitentiary of Arad. Who are the "actors", this long line of names, of IDs, of sentences, of guilts...? What's happening to them, and to us, the people who are watching them, prejudging them on the basis of our own fears, dependences, preconceptions? And after all, where can real freedom, genuine guilt, true repentence or real theatre exactly be found?

Director's Biography
Born 1962 in Romania. She studied at the Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest where she obtained a diploma in cinematography. She then worked as a Director of Photography on two feature films, as well as on many shorts and documentaries. In 2008, she made her feature debut with CROSSING DATES (2008), a Romanian-Finnish co-production, which was screened amongst others at Pusan, Chicago, Cottbus and Rome Independent Film Festival. CRULIC– THE PATHTO BEYOND, her second feature, premiered at Locarno 2011. At the moment Anca Damian is dividing her work between the pre-production of a new feature (AVery Unsettled Summer) and her function as professor at the National University of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest.

Selected films as director: TRECATORUL PAMANTULUI – ION NICODIM (Earth’s Passerby – Ion Nicodim, 1998, doc short), EMINESCU – OCALATORIE VIRTUALA IN ABSO¬LUT (Eminescu – A Virtual Journey within the Absolute, 2000, doc short), IMPOSIBILUL PARADIS (The Unattainable Paradise, 2001, short), CHIPURI DE LUT (The Clay Faces, 2002, doc short), CHIPURI ( Faces, 2002, doc short), EXERCITIU DE LIBERTATE (Liberty Exercise, 2003, doc short), AFI SAU A NU FI (To Be or Not to Be, 2007, doc), ÎNTÂLNIRI ÎNCRUCIŞATE (Crossing Dates, 2008), CRULIC– DRUMUL SPRE DINCOLO (Crulic – The Path to Beyond, 2011)
Tribute 2012
Anca Damian
Rumänien 2007
color
86 Minuten
OmeU
Drehbuch Anca Damian
Kamera Ilya Zogovski
Schnitt Aleksandar Zikov
Ton/Sounddesign Vadim Staver
Produktion
Editura Video 1 Piata Presei Libere, Floor 7, Room 738 71341 Bucharest Romania T / F +40 21 224 39 92 edvideo@b.astral.ro www.editura-video.ro