This film event will take place only on-site at the Akademie für Politische Bildung in Tutzing. As the number of seats is very limited, we kindly ask for timely registration until September 28, 2022.

Opening Remarks

Linda Paganelli, Visual Anthropologist-Artist-Filmmaker, Berlin
Anne Pirwitz, Research Associate, Institute for Roman Studies, University of Potsdam

Short Film presentation

Film 1: Don’t Come Home This Year, by Stefan Voicu (Romania), 8 Min
Film 2: In Between / Në mes, by Samir Karahoda (Kosovo), 13 Min
Film 3: The Birthdayboy / Sărbătoritul, by Sabin Dorohoi (Romania), 18 Min    

Q&A session with the film directors

Stefan Voicu, Samir Karahoda (online), Sabin Dorohoi

Topic

To tackle the topic of re-migration visually, , the film evening will screen three short movies that deal with this topic, digging into different dimensions. The first movie “Don’t Come Home This Year” exposes the controversies and tensions between returnees, who stayed abroad, and who remained in Romania; the second movie “In Between / Në mes” reveals expectations and hopes of parents in Kosovo; and the last movie “The Birthdayboy / Sărbătoritu” discloses feelings of nostalgia and abandonment in Romania. 

Linda Paganelli and Anne Pirwitz will introduce the film evening with a brief overview of the particularity of Southeast European migration films and an insight into the subgenre of return film. The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with the film directors.

Film 1: Don’t Come Home This Year

“Don’t come home this year“ by Stefan Voicu is a short video about Romanian migrants returning home from Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The video uses found footage that became viral on social media made by returnees stuck between Austria and Hungary, by Romanians who remained abroad, and those who never left. It creates a virtual dialogue revealing bitter discussions between the protagonists of diaspora.

Stefan Voicu received his PhD in sociology and social anthropology at Central European University. He is currently researching the transformations of arable land property relations and agri-food commodity chains in postsocialist Romania in connection to the financialization of global capitalism. His research interests are agrarian class formation, uneven development, environmental change, and visual methods. He has been a member of the FocaalBlog editorial team since 2017.

Film 2: In Between / Në mes

The film “In Between / Në mes” by Samir Karahoda shows, in an ironical and “geometrical” photography, the effort of Kosovar parents to build identical houses in Kosovo for the daughters and sons living and working abroad, in the hope that they may one day return.

Samir Karahoda began working as a photographer in 1992. In 2003 he completed his photography studies at the Academy of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. In addition to his work as a photographer, he is also a cinematographer, tutor and curator of the short film program at the Documentary and Short Film Festival DokuFest. Cinematographed several shorts and feature films including his own films. His documentary short film "In Between" was his directorial debut, which in 2019 had its world premiere at the Berlinale as the first Kosovar film to compete at this festival. In Between (Në mes) was also a candidate for European Film Academy Award EFA.

Displaced (Pa vend) is his second short film which premiered at Official Competition at Festival de Cannes in 2021 where was awarded with EFA nomination for European Film Awards 2021. Displaced, won IMDb Pro short cuts award as best short film at Toronto International Film Festival and best nonfiction at Sundance Film Festival.

In 2019 he was awarded with Annual Cinematography Award from Ministry of Culture of Republic of Kosovo. 

Film 3: The Birthdayboy / Sărbătoritul 

“Sărbătoritul / The Birthday boy” by Sabin Dorohoi is the story of a 12-year-old teenager who lives with his grandfather. The story unfolds during his birthday, when the parents come home from Western Europe to celebrate with him. However, the long absence of the parents creates conflicts and a feeling of despair.

Sabin Dorohoi graduated the Film Academy from Bucharest as film director. In 2013 he founded WTS - Western Transylvania Studios, a production company in the western part of Romania, to provide full production services for international projects from Western Europe or US. He produced short films and TV documentaries, some of them selected and awarded in film festivals around the world. His most internationally acclaimed creation was the short film “Way of the Danube” (2013), which won the grand prize at Oscar qualifying Chicago International Children’s Film Festival - USA, was the only Romanian film ever to be screened partially during Eurovision Song Contest Viena 2015, won a Cinematography award at Capalbio - Italy, the Young Public Award at CINEMED – Montpellier - France and was selected in many festivals around the world such as Palm Springs ShortFest, Nordkapp, Vilnius or California Independent Film Festival.  “Clara” (shot in 2022) will be his first feature film.