Flying Sheep

Ńeale Azbuirătoare

64th TIFF: Greek Premiere
A poetic incursion in the memory of Aromanians, who have roamed throughout the history of Europe, finding places to live and prosper in the entire Balkan Peninsula. A Balkan minority of nomadic shepherds, Romance language speakers living south of the Danube, saw themselves persecuted and threatened with death in bloody territorial battles at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the ensuing formation of nations. Without a territory and a written language, they get banished from history and are in constant wandering. They march with the herds, having as their only certainty their own identity, an oral culture in an archaic dialect that the author spoke in her early childhood with her grandparents born in northern Greece. An invitation to explore a history full of atmosphere and layered echoes, a world seen from an ultra-personal perspective, a complex essay, conveyed through multiple meaningful layers of image, spoken word, song, and emotion, staging archives that passionately interpret this perpetual tragic wandering that is also full of courage.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Available at the Agora Market TIFF64.
Direction: Alexandra Gulea
Script: Alexandra Gulea
Cinematography: Nicu Ilfoveanu, George Chiper-Lillemark
Editing: Alexandra Gulea
Sound: Andreas Bolm, Flora Pop
Music: Stephan Dunkelman, Vlaicu Golcea, Stéphane Karo
Actors: Maria Cuzmin, Mina Ilfoveanu
Production: Trident Film, weltFilm, VideoArt
Producers: Stere Gulea, Kristina Konrad, Alexandra Gulea
Costumes: Ramona Stanca
Format: DCP
Color: Color, B/W
Production Country: Romania, Germany
Production Year: 2022
Duration: 24'
Contact: Alexandra Gulea
Awards/Distinctions: Best Film of German Competition – ISFF Oberhausen 2022

Alexandra Gulea

Alexandra Gulea (1970, Bucuresti, Romania) graduated in 1997 with a cum laude degree from the Écoole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. After paticipating in several painting exibitions, she studied documentary film at Munich Film School and since 1999 directed documentary films, shorts, video installations, and a fiction feature film. She also worked as an editor on several movies.

Filmography

2000 Anonymous (short, doc)
2004 God Plays Sax, the Devil Violin (doc)
2013 Matei Chil Miner
2018 Valea Jiului Notes (short, doc)
2022 Flying Sheep (short, doc)