SATUL SOSETELOR VILLAGE OF SOCKS by ILEANA STANCULESCU
Rumänien/D 2006

In the small village Viscri/Deutschweisskirch, in the middle of Transylvania (Romania), all women are knitting socks. A German musician, Harald Riese, is the head of the local "sock-project": he sells the knitted socks to Germany, to Austria and to other countries. And he also enjoys living in Viscri. Harald teaches to Viscri-children German, plays piano and sings about the beauty of the Romanian language. Last but not least, he organizes the sock-export to Western Europe.
Slowly by slowly all the village became a sock-factory. Thanks to the "sock-project" every family has a regular income. There has been even opened a shop in the village, where tourists can buy the woollen products. And since two years a doctor comes two times per week and takes care of those who are sick. Her salary is paid by the sock-organisation.
This documentary is a portrait of a very special village, isolated in a beautiful landscape but still full of life.

Director's Statement
The first time I went to the small village Viscri, in Transylvania, it was on my birthday. Together with my parents, we visited the old medieval church and then we wanted to go back home. But my mother has seen something strange written on a door: "The sock-hour is from 10.00-12.00".

We knocked at the door and asked the owner of the house what is the "sock-hour". The owner of the house was Harald Riese, a musician from Berlin, who loves to live in the small Romanian village and has invented the sock-project: every woman in Viscri knits woolen socks and Harald sells them abroad.

Since he has started the project, every family in the village has a regular income, a small shop has been opened, a factory has been founded and a doctor comes every week to take care of those who need help. Harald was so proud of his sock-project, that I filmed him and later on, I decided to realize also portraits of the women who are involved in the local "sock-industry".

My main question was: how can a village survive today, when all villages get empty and when living in the country-side is so difficult that nobody can afford it anymore? And how can peasants continue to work and live in a natural way, like they did the last hundreds of years. Together with my co-director Klaudia Begic, we have been awarded the "Award for Joint Venture Productions" of the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung and we could make this film.

My way of seeing life is very much influenced by the social changes in Eastern Europe and in my country. And, in general, I realize that women are those who suffer most in the transition period to the market economy. Trying to make a living in difficult times and trying to keep their children and family protected by the economical crises that followed the fall of the Communism, women are always finding solutions.

As a filmmaker I always want to present people to the audience: I want to present people that I like, people I have talked to, people I have observed during a long period of time. The women in the village of socks became my friends and I hope that the audience will remember them in the same way like I do.

SATUL OSETELOR VILLAGE OF SOCKS
a film by ILEANA STANCULESCU
Germany/Romania 2006, 78 min, Colour
Director & Producer Ileana Stãnculescu
Co Director & Editor Klaudia Begic
Directors of Photography Valentin Popescu, Artchil Khetagouri, Nikola Wyrwich
Sound Alexandru Ionescu
Sound Mix Anusavan Salamanian
Assistant Nelutu Bain
Color Correction Karsten Raetsch
Dramaturgy Consultant Prof. Peter Rabenalt
The Film was financed by the Award for Joint Venture Productions of the
Robert Bosch Stiftung (“Filmförderpreis für Koproduktionen ”)
Press Contact: Ileana Stãnculescu •Art Doc •Macedonski Street No.8 •
010591 Bucharest, Romania
Tel+40 21 211 5756 Fax:+40 21 323 40 91
iile-stancu@gmx.de