Anishoara

Synopsis

“’Anishoara’ is the real name of her lead actress, whose unselfconscious, taciturn magnetism captivated the director. (…) Scutelnicu’s camera observes her with a removed but intense interest as she dashes through fields or listens to the sounds of night or does her chores, always with a strange, self-contained single-mindedness. It’s rare that a film about such a disenfranchised and isolated world can observe it with neither condescension nor romanticism, but it’s a line Scutelnicu walks deftly. (…) Because as much as the director is fascinated by her star, she is perhaps even more so by the circumstances of Anishoara’s life, presenting the Moldovan countryside as an ancient place, almost a time capsule of customs and rituals and folklore forgotten by the rest of the world. (…) It’s to Scutelnicu’s credit that despite the considered, almost drowsy pace of the proceedings, she still manages to evoke a sense of almost animalistic peril. (…) When one of her grandfather’s fellow carousers comes in from the revelry outside and sits heavily on Anishoara’s bed, she may pull back into almost complete shadow but you can sense her alarm, her alertness. But more often than not the dramatic thing does not happen, merely the truthful one. And the truth here is that these lives are neither ennobled nor impoverished by the lack of werewithal; they simply are, as they have always been. In some ways, “Anishoara” evokes a world remote from our own times…“ (Jessica Kiang, Variety)

Around The World in 14 Films 2016, presented by Rüdiger Suchsland – in attendance of director Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu

With the support of Fitz & Skoglund