DEM HIMMEL GANZ NAH - CLOSE TO HEAVEN

by Titus Faschina
93’, Germany, Romania, 2010

The world in which Dumitru Stanciu and his family live seems to have only the sky as a border. It is a corner of the Carpathian Mountains, in Transylvania, on a farm where father, mother, and son work in the fields and tend their sheep, like their ancestors did for thousands and thousands of years. The ploughs pulled by oxen and carts pulled by horses are their only machines. To go down to the valley to the little town they go on foot or with a cart, depending on the urgency. Filmed in black and white, the grandiose images of this documentary exalt the beauty of these places in the heart of the Carpathians. The steep ridges of the meadows contrast with the thousands of sheep that populate them. The dazzling colour of the fresh milk, the sparkle of the night fires, and the gleam of the sky are accompanied by few, essential words, leaving the images to speak for themselves.

Titus Faschina Born in Berlin in 1964, after studying communications science, German philology, literature and dramaturgy at the Humboldt Universität, Titus Faschina began his career as a writer and director for the most important German television stations. After various teaching experiences, in 2006 he became a professor of Visual Media and Dramaturgy at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.