Synopsis
OFF THE BEATEN TRACK chronicles one year in the life of Albin and his family of shepherds in the North of Transylvania. In direct cinema style, this documentary follows their day to day routines, and their struggle to adapt to a new world where traditions are gradually replaced by modern values. Since joining the EU, Romania has been facing, like several other Eastern European countries, the pressure of modern values, introducing in farmer’s lives the cruel notion of competition, the temptation of migrating to the higher salaries abroad, and the marginalisation of locally produced food against industrial products.
Technical Information
2011; Ireland, Romania; Documentary, Creative; 87 minutes; TV-Version: 52 minutes; 35mm; 1:1.85; Dolby SRD; Original Language: Romanian; Subtitles: English
DIRECTOR
Dieter Auner
WRITER
Dieter Auner
D.O.P.
Nora Agapi
EDITOR
Roxana Malaroiu, Alexandru Radu, Catalin Cristutiu
MUSIC
Eugen Aloisiu Nucu Pandrea
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Ikandi Productions & Mobra Films
PRODUCER
Siún Ní Raghallaigh, Cristian Mungiu, Dieter Auner
CAMERA
Dieter Auner, Alex Brendea
DIETER AUNER
Dieter Auner was born in 1970 in Transylvania, Romania. He has worked as a photographer on Irish and international productions, camera operator and editor on short films before making his directorial debut with “Leaving Transylvania”, a powerful 52 minute documentary. This film is an intimate portrait about his minority, the Transylvanian Saxons, and their exodus from Romania. Dieter lives and works in Galway, Ireland. “Off The Beaten Track”, his second feature documentary, reveals another important humane theme based in his ´lost´ homeland and deals with humane values in a modernizing shepherd community.
Selective Filmography
Feature Film
2000 The Doorway
Feature Documentary
2006 Leaving Transylvania
2004 Patrick
Short
2006 Mebollix
2015
CINEAST – FESTIVAL DU FILM D’EUROPE CENTRALE ET ORIENTALE AU LUXEMBOURG
Oct 08 – 25
GREEN IMAGE FILM FESTIVAL TOKYO
Mar 27 – 29 (in competition)
2014
INNSBRUCK NATURE FILM FESTIVAL
Oct 21 – 24
2013
EU FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE IN CHINA
Dec 01 – Feb 28
MILLENIUM INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
May 31 – Jun 09
2012
ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILM FESTIVAL
Nov 27 – 30
Oct 19 – Nov 02
Mar 20 – 25
2011
Nov 08 – 11
SEVILLE EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL
Nov 04 – 11 (in competition)
ASTRA FILM FESTIVAL
Special Award
Oct 30
Oct 13 – 16
Oct 01 – 08 (in competition)
Aug 20 – 28 (in competition)
Jun 15 – 26
May 04 – 11
Apr 12 – 17
Mar 31 – Apr 14 (in competition)
JAMESON DUBLIN INT. FILM FESTIVAL
Feb 17 – 27
Jan 26 – Feb 06
2010
Jul 09 – 14
TRANSILVANIA INT. FILM FESTIVAL
May 28 – Jun 06
Télérama
If this documentary is worth seeing, it’s less for the emergence of modernity than for the director’s ability to show a traditional way of life. Freed from the usual clichés, the film becomes a fiction, wonderfully composed
La Croix
Warning: a big crush for this amazing documentary that captures a subtle shift between two worlds! One of these little treasures quietly slipped into the stream of weekly releases. It would be a shame to ignore it. The images, sublime but never “made”, are part of the strange disorder that captures the viewer.
StudioCiné Live
This portrait of a changing world goes beyond the scope of rurality to go on the political field of globalization, viewed through the prism of a country often stigmatized.
Les Fiches du Cinema
Dieter Auner signs a beautiful ode to the earth and to the men who love her, and he pays tribute to a world rustic and rough, noble and rude which is disappearing.
TéléCinéObs
Dieter Auner signs an economical-ecological documentary and places the individual at the heart of broad themes such as immigration and land policies in the European Union
