TOTO SI SURORILE LUI
Romania, Hungary
Synopsis
Director's Statement
The fact that some are born in the places and circumstances of the film’s protagonists is, from my perspective, an accident of fate and has nothing to say about the abilities and aspirations one has. More crucial for the development of one’s perspectives and imagination are the models chosen and the kind of life pursued.
The focus is the development of three young lives of different ages within a year. Whether it is their life in the ghetto, the struggle at the Children’s Club, going to school, struggling to live up to the performing and discipline demands of the street dance teacher, visiting their mother in jail, court sessions or fights with their uncles, each one is waiting for their mother's return from prison in his or her own way.
Learning and dancing become dominant in Toto’s world. Words, reading, numbers, dance moves take over his mind and his behaviour and make the nights he spends at home just fragments of a faraway reality.
An important element sustaining the story’s intimacy is the video material that the younger sister, Andreea, shot herself, documenting their life. It was important for me that their story would be told in a film made with them, not only about them.
Cast & Crew
Directed by: Alexander Nanau
Written by: Alexander Nanau
Produced by: Hanka Kastelicova, Alexander Nanau, Catalin Mitulescu, Marcian Lazar, Valeriu Nicolae
Cinematography: Alexander Nanau
Editing: Alexander Nanau, George Cragg, Mircea Olteanu
Sound Design: Matthias Lempert
Main Cast: Toto Ilie Nicusor Gabriel Horvath, Andreea Petre, Ana Maria Badulescu
Nominations and Awards
- European Documentary 2015
- Documentary Selection 2015