PANIHIDA

An old woman has died in a Moldovan village. The neighbours have joined her son Petru and granddaughter Anishoara to mourn her death. They sit with the dead woman and lament her passing in accordance with their traditions and beliefs. Fortified by wine and cigarettes, they spend the night talking about life and death, about their own mortality. And then it’s time to take the woman, who lies in an open coffin, to her final resting place. With the midsummer sun beating down on the funeral procession, the walk to the cemetery seems endless. “Grandmother Ileana grows heavier by the minute. The earth is calling to her…” In spite of being grief-stricken, and although the exhausted pall-bearers keep stopping to rest, the small group of mourners keeps a sense of humour. In images of enchanting beauty and poetry the young filmmaker Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu tells a seemingly simple tale from her home in the Republic of Moldova. Her depiction of a community taking leave of a loved one turns into a celebration of life, a declaration of love for the countryside and its inhabitants.