Section: Spotlight: Ukraine

Vulturii din Țaga

EAGLES FROM ŢAGA EAGLES FROM ŢAGA

Adina Popescu/ Iulian Manuel Gharvas
RO/SK , 2022, 74 Min

Sometimes everything just seems to go against him: the weather, the referee, his wife and even his own players. Manager Nelu holds his football team together with a mixture of passion and defiance. And yet the Eagles from Țaga, Transylvania, are always losing. As ever, it’s about more than simply taking part in this laconic, congenial local portrait.

He takes care of the pitch markings and desperately tries to get his eleven players together for the next match though they’re all attending weddings or are otherwise required to lend a hand somewhere in the neighbourhood. Nelu Târnovan, himself a former player, today keeps his club alive. The Eagles from Țaga, Transylvania, are considered to be one of Romania's worst football teams. And nevertheless: at an international tournament in Slovakia they perform well; there is obviously a real togetherness within the team. And for directing duo Iulian Manuel Ghervas and Adina Popescu that’s ultimately the point: to explore the very everyday aspects of life in this rural community. Where the insight that everything will continue as usual also means a certain assurance. Far removed from haughty urban glances and romantic transfiguration, a true-to-life provincial portrait emerges; a sympathetic observation that puts a lot of time aside for interpersonal detail, in the process time and again stumbling upon absurd everyday situations, and yet always treats its protagonists as equals.

 

Text: Bernd Buder

Weltspiegel Saal 2: Original version with English subtitles Kammerbühne/Serienlounge: original version with English subtitles

Drehbuch
Adina Popescu & Paula Reiselová
Kamera
Iulian Manuel Ghervas
Ton
Ștefan Teodorescu
Schnitt
Iulian Manuel Ghervas & Ligia Popescu
Produzent
Claudiu Mitcu
Produktion
Wearebasca
Co-Produktion
David Čorba, LEON Productions
Adina Popescu/ Iulian Manuel Gharvas

Adina Popescu/ Iulian Manuel Gharvas - Adina Popescu

Born in Bucharest, Romania, in 1978, Adina Popescu has a BA in Film Directing and she’s been working as a cultural journalist one of the most important publications in Romania which analyzes social, political and cultural life. Her articles won prestigious prizes like the award of UNO agencies for mass media, in 2004. She is also writing books.  

She co-directed documentaries together with Iulian Manuel Ghervas, she worked for several national channels. She was selector for Astra Film Festival and she participated in the jury of Docuart Film Festival, 2016.

Iulian Manuel Ghervas

Iulian Manuel Ghervas is an independent filmmaker based in Bucharest. He studied philosophy and film directing, he has over ten years of experience in television and film production and his filmography includes some feature length documentaries broadcast on national television channel TVR1 or HBO Romania and several awards and nominations such as Award in Best Research, Astra Film Festival - 2009, The Romanian Filmmakes Union Award - 2011, Nominee for The Best Documentary Romanian Film industry Awards – 2010, 2014.