HISTORY

Toto and His Sisters focuses on 10-year-old Toto and his two teenage sisters, Ana, 17 and Andreea, 14. The three siblings live in a run-down suburb of Bucharest surrounded by rubble and despair. In the absence of both parents their apartment has become a drug den for their uncles and various neighbors. Despite the surrounding misery the children are smart and strong, helping each other and educating themselves while maintaining a childish joy in life, as they wait for their mother to return from prison.
The siblings' ways of coping pulls them in different directions, and it soon dawns on Andreea that it's up to her to provide Toto with a stable role model as Ana is sucked deeper into her uncles' world. Director Alexander Nanau's choice of placing the camera in the children's own hands is a clever device, giving them agency to tell their own story. Nanau blends their intimate footage with more traditional filmmaking techniques to provide a well-rounded and immersive portrait of drug-abuse, without feeling exploitative or sentimental.

Tuesday, December 15th 6:00 p.m.

Romania, 2014

Director:

Alexander Nanau

93 minutes.

Language: Romanian with subtitles in Spanish.

Screenwriter:

Alexander Nanau

Producer:

Hanka Kastelicova

Valeriu Nicolae

Alexander Nanau

Catalin Mitulescu

Editor:

Alexander Nanau

George Cragg

Mircea Olteanu

Cinematographer:

Alexander Nanau

Executive Producer:

Antony Root, Bianca Oana

Cast:

Toto Gabriel Horvath

Andreea Petre

Ana Maria Badulescu

Siminica Petre

DIRECTOR

Alexander Nanau was born in Romania and studied directing at the Film and Television Academy in Berlin. His documentary film, The World According to Ion B, received an International Emmy Award in 2010. He holds a fellowship at the Sundance Institute.

FESTIVALS AND AWARDS

• Angers European First Film Festival 2015 won Grand Jury Prize
• Budapest International Documentary Festival 2015
• Camden International Film Festival 2015
• DocAviv Film Festival 2015- Nominated Best International Film.
• Gopo Awards, Romania 2015
• Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival 2014
• Leipzig DOK Festival 2014Won Honorable Mention International Documentary Competition
• Melbourne International Film Festival 2015