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CLARA

original title: CLARA

2023, 84 min., color, German & Romanian

CATEGORIES : Drama, Debut
COUNTRIES: Germany, Romania
PRODUCTION :

BUDGET : 716 333 euro

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

CAST

Olga Török, Ovidiu Crișan, Luca Puia, Elina Leitl

CREW

Director :

Sabin Dorohoi

Screenplay : Ruxandra Ghițescu
Cinematographer : Lulu de Hillerin
Producers : Daniel Burlac, Daniel Ehrenberg, Sabin Dorohoi, Viorel Chesaru

COMMENTS

FESTIVALS: BIFF (Bucharest International Film Festival) 2024, Serile Filmului Romanesc (Romania) 2024, Ceau Cinema (Romania) 2024, Internationales Donaufest Ulm/Neu-Ulm (Germany) 2024, Al Este International Film Festival – Lima Peru & Bogota Colombia 2024, South East European Film Festival (Los Angeles) 2024, Kolkata International Film Festival 2023, Cottbus International Film Festival / Spectrum 2023 (World Premiere)

DIRECTOR’S statement: In the last 15 years, more than 5 million Romanians have left the country and abandoned more than 300.000 children that are raised by their grandparents. Labor force migration and children that are left behind is a real problem in many countries: Ukraine, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Poland and even Russia. Financial Times publication considers that the Romanian migration is the third largest in the world, after the war refugees from Ukraine and Syria. So, the theme has a very powerful international appeal, because people from so many countries in the world can relate directly to this social issue.
The film presents this migration topic through the eyes of a mother who has to face her failure in relation to her underaged son while still hoping to get a better shot at proofing her motherhood in the close relation she has with the child she babysits in Germany. Her conflict is that she loves two children in two different countries. The story is also very personal. Moreover, the film is shot in the house I grew up. So, it can’t get more personal than this.

SYNOPSIS

Set on the background of economical migration, the film tells the story of Clara, a divorced mother in her thirties who needs to work abroad in Ulm, a German Town by the Danube River. She works as a babysitter for a little girl that is very fond of. At the same time, she had to leave behind her own 12 years old son who is now in the care of his grandfather. They live in a poor Romanian village also by the Danube River. Overwhelmed by feelings of disappointment and feeling abandoned by his mother, the boy runs away from home in a childish attempt to reach his mother by water, traveling on a small boat upriver on the Danube. In this context, Clara has to come back home and face the life she left behind: her responsibility for the actions of her son. She tries to heal the wounds she provoked by abandoning him. As she returns to Romania, the boy is already safe and sound in the hospital but his feelings towards his mother changed a lot. In a gloomy world of old people and children left behind, in a village with almost no chances of making a decent living, Clara struggles to repair the relationship she had with her son. She is torn between the love for her son and the maternal feelings for the little girl she babysits in Germany. Clara is a woman with few chances of really choosing a fate, she reacts to the exterior conditionings trying constantly to minimize the harm she is provoking, in her attempt to do the best she can in a no winning situation.

CLARA addresses the fate of over 5 000 000 Romanians who work outside Romania and are often forced to leave their children behind.

PRESS

“I came across an article in a Romanian newspaper. A number of suicides have been reported. – there were children – 10, 11 years old, who felt abandoned by their parents, who worked abroad. This message did not let go of me anymore. I wanted to tell something about this social drama.” – Sabin Dorohoi, Director

“It was not difficult for me to put myself in the role of Ionut. Because his situation is very familiar to me. I also only live with one parent and I can understand his pain and grief.” – Luca Puya, child actor (Many of his friends and classmates feel similar to Ionut. His own father also lives in England.) – to Charlotte Pollex, Germany rbbKultur – Das Magazin

A story about Romania’s abandoned children “Clara” addresses the fate of over 5 million Romanians who work abroad and are often forced to leave their children behind. – Film-Commission-Ulm / Germany

A social-Drama inspired by a true European social issue.
Millions of Romanian work abroad and the film is an emotional story behind these statistical numbers. Sabin Dorohoi uses a poetic cinematography and vast landscapes. Thus, the Danube River has a key role in the movie. It shows us the heavy price that people from Eastern Europe have to pay in order to work for us in the West. – RBB Television / Germany

Clara represents the millions of Romanian women who work abroad and scarified themselves for their families. It’s a very less known migration theme. A sensitive social theme in a film with poetic cinematography addressed to the general public. – SÜDWEST PRESSE / Germany

The story bears the weight of countless real life examples, a weight under which it frequently falters into mundane existentialism. There are next to no chuckles to be had, with colourless characters and witless dialogue creating that heavy atmosphere of bureaucratic arrested development. Thereby the movie highlights societal pressures and constraints that someone like Clara has to endure, to the point that she becomes a ghost in her own life. – Tributary Stu

An accurate picture of the Eastern European way of life. – Film Festival Cottbus / Germany

“We sought to focus upon a key problem, a problem that has become more and more important worldwide, and not only in Romania not only in Europe… Clara’s story is in no way linked to a certain place, it doesn’t depend on it, it is the story of all those who experience that condition and have no choice other that travel far from home, irrespective of their being from Latin America, Europe or India. I believe what’s most valuable about this film is the fact that it succeeded to remain sincere, honest, all along, and tackle a key issue with utmost attention.” – Dan Burlac (producer) to Eugen Nasta, Radio Romania International