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Directed by: Ionuţ Cărpătorea
Co-producers:
With the support of:
This is the story of over 350.000 Romanian children left “home alone”. One or both their parents are working abroad, in Italy, Spain and other Western Europe countries. The kids were left to be taken care of by relatives or even neighbors. Many of them committed or attempted suicide. How can one explain what they did? What did these kids think? What drove them to the point of losing everything?
The film tells three of these stories, three stories about children that ended their own lives. The observational style is mixed with interviews as the film weaves between the three stories and their characters, the parents that opened their hearts in front of the camera and shared their profound grief but also their ideas about what caused the tragedies.
This is not only a Romanian tragedy, it's a human tragedy that we have to reflect upon. When a child dies part of our future dies too. But when a child decides to end his own life everything becomes questionable, pointless, everything hurts. Beyond the sadness, the film should make us think about today's society and also about what our children need besides mobile phones or expensive computer games.
In 2006 the Romanian citizens working abroad sent home 5.2 billion Euro, placing Romania on the 10th place in the worldwide standings concerning the sums repatriated by the citizens working abroad and on the 2nd place in Europe. The specialists estimate that in 2007 the sum is about 7 billion Euro. That money pretty much keeps the Romanian economy growing and shows that the country’s most successful export product is… people.
It all started around the year 2000 when a massive number of Romanian citizens were selected for jobs in Spain. Most of the jobs were in the agriculture field, as strawberry pickers. The Romanian press called these workers “The Strawberry People” and this name is used today to call almost all the Romanians working abroad, regardless of their jobs there. More and more people left Romania each year, and today the count stands up at 3 million people. Their paycheck is a blessing for the Romanian economy, but their absence is a curse for their families.
According to an UNICEF survey there are 350.000 Romanian children that are missing one or both their parents now because of their going to work abroad. The same survey states that a third of these children are missing both parents and the majority of the rest are missing the mother. Mothers are essential in the typical Romanian family, because they are the ones that take care of the household and the kids.
From time to time the public was shocked to find out from the newspapers about another child committing or attempting to commit suicide. Here is just an example:
A 12 year old child from the county of Arges hanged himself on Monday after finding out that his mother is going to leave home to work in Italy. The relatives say that the boy was very sensitive and could not stand the thought that his mother will be away. The boy left a note: “I’m sorry to leave you. You won’t have problems with my funeral, because I know that man who bought the wood will come with the money next week. My sister, you go to school and be good. Mum, you take good care of yourself because people are bad”
The Romanian authorities have no official statistics about this problem, nobody knows how many of these children tried to end their lives. The Romanian media found and presented more than 20 of these tragic stories. Although the TV news programs and the newspapers quickly react to the dramatic events the tragedies end up by being forgotten and buried in the next day’s news. Even more, such news are not considered as “interesting” anymore, some of the latest cases were not given any media attention.
A Soros Foundation survey says that more than 35 % of the “Strawberry People’s” children are depressed. And depression is the main reason of suicidal acts worldwide. However, suicide is a very uncommon act among children, and that is what makes this situation strange and difficult to understand. The stories of these children will show that they were forced to grow up suddenly, having to face the hardships of life without their parents’ help. They were poor before the departure of their parents, but facing poverty without them can be too much for a child. Most of them were behaving normally, so that nobody suspected that they would try to end their own lives.
The latest World Health Organization suicide statistic was made in 2004 and it shows that the average suicide rate for children aged 5 to 14 was three times higher in Romania than the average European rate.
The film will tell the viewer three stories, three stories about children that ended their own lives. The stories are told by the parents, friends, relatives or teachers that were close to these kids.
We don’t use a narrator and the stories are told in an interwoven manner, they intersect showing that the problem is the same in different regions of the country and even in different social environments (urban and rural). We also think that this by telling three different stories we will give the viewer a feeling of the dimensions of the problem. The viewer will also get to see, feel and understand from different perspectives and situations how and why these tragedies happened.
The viewer will get the information through interviews and also through the observational footage that will be present throughout the film. We’ve spent around a month with each of the three families and shown their daily life, related to the past, especially to their tragic events and to the future. This added another layer to the film, the tragedy of the parents that have to carry on living after their child decided to die.
We’re not making re-enactments of the tragic events, because we think that would be unethical and sensationalistic.
“Why did they do it?” There will be multiple answers available for the viewer after watching the film because after viewing all the stories some obvious patterns will emerge.
The shootings took place in Romania: Ciortesti (Iasi County), Agapia (Neamt County) and the town of Botosani, as well in Italy: Sulmona (Abruzzo Region), Cosenza (Calabria Region) and Forli (Emilia Region).
The development phase of the project began in March 2008 in Poland, at the Dragon Forum workshop. In June, at the end of the workshop, when the project was pitched in front of many comissioning editors, it was appreciated by several western European broadcasters, who have announced their involvement as co-producers. The film received a vote of confidence also from HBO Central Europe, as the director and the producer were both awarded for "the further development of an outstanding film project" during the Gala of the 48th Film Festival in Krakow.
In July 2008 the project was also present at the pitching forum of the Documentary in Europe workshop, in Bardonecchia, Italy. Here the project succeeded to be joined as co-producer, the Italian public television. At that time Romanian immigrants in Italy were at the top of a xenophobic wave. The film was appreciated once more for reflecting the immigrants situation from a new perspective, highlighting the drama that they live and the sacrifice they have to make to stay there.
In March 2009 the project continued to be presented in front of other televisions at the forum of Docs in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Shootings on "Home Alone" began in September 2009 and ended this year, in June.
Carmen Manu
Evolution Film Production srl
tel: 0040 721 590 285
fax: 0040 318 170 998
www.evolutionfilm.ro
Home Alone – a Romanian Tragedy took 3 years of searching, investigating and filming. During this time, the project participated in many workshops and pithing forums. The project was also pitched at Documentary in Europe in 2008, where it gained the Italian public television as co-producer.
This year “Home Alone” had returned to Bardonecchia, and this time as a “winner”. Documentary in Europe offered 4 days of networking, screenings and meetings, between July 7 - 10, 2010. On Friday, in the section called “Successful Pitch” RAI TRE presented Home Alone - a Romanian Tragedy by Ionuţ Cãrpãtorea.
At the end of the screening, the Director addressed a few words and answered to the questions from the viewers. There were also some reviews made by the two executive co-producers: Lorenzo Hendel from RAI TRE and Wim van Rompaey from Lichtpunt.
At the first screening, “Home Alone” was hard to “digest”, therefore most of the questions were regarding the production phase of the film (How were the interviews with the main characters going? How were the stories discovered? How was the relationship between the film-maker and the families the stories are about? etc).
“Home Alone is not only a Romanian Tragedy, it is a human tragedy.” (Wim van Rompaey) And we all have to reflect upon.
Biography:
Joined Evolution Film Production as a director and writer since January 2005. He wrote and directed some major company’s projects so far, as “The Gypsies" (documentary miniseries) and “The Water and the Stones”. He also produced a various range of TV programmes including the “Romania Underground” a short documentary series which was broadcasted by the Romanian National Television.
As director of “Home Alone – a Romanian Tragedy” he received in June 2008 “The price for the further development of an outstanding film project”, from HBO Central Europe, during the Krakow Film Festival in Poland.
Filmography:
Biography:
Joined Evolution Film Production as a producer and cinematographer since April 2004. He’s the producer and co-director of the company’s major projects so far.
He's engaged fully in the collaborative process of filmmaking, the ongoing dialogue between the director, cinematographer and the crew.
He’s also a Director of Photography at the National Romanian Television since 2001.
Cinematography:
Carmen Manu
Evolution Film Production
Tel: 0040 721 590 285
Fax: 0040 318 170 998
www.evolutionfilm.ro
Behind the word "Romanian" there are millions of stories, there is a dramatic history last represented by a dictatorship that suppressed all citizen’s liberties. A political system that isolated people from the rest of the world. Back in the present, there is a sad truth that millions of Romanians emigrated in the hope of a better future. But the future is incorporated in this tragedy, many children were feeling abandoned by the parents who are working in Italy, Spain and other Western Europe coutries and were trying to runn from that feeling by commiting or attempting to commit suicide.
The Romanian women made usually the “easy work” in Italy: most of them are nannies, baby-sitting the Italians’ children, while their children are left at home, sometimes with grandparents, but sometimes even with neighbours.
“A casa da soli – una tragedia rumena” (the title of the film in Italian) is for most of the Europeans an instrument that helps people realize that we are not supposed to stay in Europe “home alone” with our old prejudices.
When “Home Alone – a Romanian Tragedy” had gained in the project the Italian public television, in 2008, Romanian immigrants were in Italy on the top of a xenophobic wave. The film stood up for being first of all, what a documentary is supposed to be: not saying about something new, but saying in a different way about something that we all knew.
The original version of the film does not contain any music in the background, but the the Italian version includes some very inspiring music from Gheorghe Zamfir, and “Ave Maria” from Schubert.
Evolution Film Production:
Founded in Bucharest, in 2004, Evolution Film is an independent production company focused on creative documentary films. Each of our projects is approached individually, with respect to its uniqueness.
We are all young people with a fresh look upon the reality and all we wish is to discover and express this feeling into the films we are producing.
We’ve made feature and short films, documentaries, as well as commercials and corporate event’s films.
Evolution Film went to produce another two documentaries so far, “the Water and the Stones” (2007) and “Maramures Wooden Churches” (2006). “Home Alone a Romanian Tragedy” is an international co-production of 2010 (Romania-Italy-Belgium). The film was first developed at Dragon Forum in Poland (2008), where at the end of the program, it was rewarded for “the further development of an outstanding film project” by HBO Central Europe.
Carmen Manu
Evolution Film Production srl
tel: 0040 721 590 285
fax: 0040 318 170 998
www.evolutionfilm.ro
