PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Anna Eborn, director of the documentary Transnistra.
An interview with director Anna Eborn, whose film Transnistra had its world premiere at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. For a year, Eborn followed and filmed a group of young people in their late teens, living in the tiny, unrecognized state of Transnistra, which split from Moldova in 1992 (although it is still officially recognized by the UN as part of Moldova). The director tells us about the contrast of old and new in her film, of being fascinated about hearing of the place during the making of the previous film and then once she saw it with her own eyes, and of “street casting” her protagonists, being particularly taken by the energy of one of them, Tanya. We also discuss the power of 16mm and how the technique of filming on 16mm, as she says, “just suits her.”
Transnistra: Dreamy documentary about the inner lives of underprivileged teens in Transnistria, an area that unilaterally declared independence from Moldova after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but remains unrecognised. Although ostensibly this declaration was occasioned by unity between the inhabitants, there is little evidence of this. Swedish director Anna Eborn reveals the uncertainty among youngsters. Should they stay or leave? Do they even have the money to do so? Transnistra focuses on the daily lives of six teens. Tanya plays the field with her male friends while she has a boyfriend abroad. She takes the boys into nature or to dilapidated tower blocks for brief trysts or to have good company. Combined with sensual music, Eborn’s intimate shots suggest this idyll is fleeting. Life is extra evanescent in a non-existent country.
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