Screening: Toto and his sisters

Montpezat-sous-Bauzon, Ardèche

Opening : Friday 29 November 2024.

Documentary film month in Montpezat. Toto, aged 9, lives with his older sisters Andreea and Ana in a run-down ghetto on the outskirts of Bucharest. They are crammed into a single room. Their mother, Siminica, is in prison and the children are left to fend for themselves.

‘Toto and his sisters’ by Alexander Nanau. 2014, 93 mins. Romania. OV with French subtitles.
Life changes for Toto and Andreea when they are finally accepted into an orphanage. Toto learns to read and write and discovers a passion for hip hop dance.
Alexander Nanau, who followed Totonel's family for over a year, lets us follow his documentary like fiction - so much so that some of the images may seem unreal. Brutality mingles with the ordinary and moments of grace. Tired veins, a hot meal, a snowball fight. In this family struggling to find its balance, Totonel perseveres, smiles, learns to read and proves gifted at hip-hop. The construction of these three children is a painful one, even if there are very few tears. A film that fascinates, disturbs and makes us think about childhood and life, which sometimes offers what parents have not been able to give.
The film was shown at the Douarnenez Festival and the Paris Human Rights Festival, where it won the Grand Prize.
Alexander Nanau is a German director, screenwriter and cinematographer born in Bucharest in 1979. His family belongs to the Transylvanian Saxons, a cultural minority of German origin who have lived in Romania for generations. In 1990, they emigrated to Germany and became German citizens.
After studying filmmaking at the DFFB film school in Berlin, he made his first documentary film, Peter Zadek inszeniert Peer Gynt, in 2006, which was released in Germany and Austria. In 2009, he directed and co-produced a second documentary, The World According To Ion B., a portrait of a 62-year-old homeless man who is starting a career in the art world with collages he has been collecting for 30 years. His film travelled to more than 50 international festivals and won the Emmy Award for Best Artistic Programme. His third feature, Toto est ses sœurs, won numerous awards, including the Grand Prix at the Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers. His latest film, L'Affaire collective, was shown at the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival in 2019, as well as at numerous festivals around the world. In 2020, the film won the European Film Award for Best Documentary, and in 2021 it was nominated for an Oscar in the Best International Film and Best Documentary categories.
(Source: Tënk)