Birds' Way (2009)

• 84%
• 2009
• Klára Trencsényi
• Vlad Naumescu

The story takes place in the picturesque, isolated scenery of the Danube Delta in Romania. The protagonist is a Russian Lipovan community chased away from Russia three hundred years ago for not accepting the religious reforms of 1666. They found refuge in the Delta where they kept their language, rituals ever since... up to now. Today they have to face new problems: the absence of a religious leader, the migration of the youth, the intrusion of new colonizers... Their last 'reader' and storyteller, 75-year-old Artiom tells us the destiny of Old Believers as laid out in the Book. The testimonies of these Old Believers about recent transformations, dying religion and their struggle to preserve archaic traditions reveal the vulnerability of a traditional community - with poetry and humour.