Private Project

The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters

The film takes the viewer straight into the heart of a traditional Roma community from Transylvania where there is little if any freedom of choice in individual lives. Everyone here is compelled by culture to follow a predictable trajectory, namely to marry and conceive offspring. Marriages are arranged by parents for their children at early ages. Yet marital ties are fragile and made to endure only by the birth of a boy to the new couple. Boys alone inherit the family’s badge, the TAHTAIs (chalices)- silver cups that come from their ancestors. Daughters are not desired because they bring the prospects for their parents to pay big cash dowries to marry them off. Conseqeuntly couples often resort to sex selective abortions. When a marriage is arranged, the boy’s chalice is given in trust to the bride’s family until the new couple has a son who will inherit it and will secure the couple’s marriage.
The documentary follows Peli and Nina, a young couple in their mid-20s, parents to a 5 year daughter who are striving to conceive a son, in order to comply with the local custom. While they are living under tremendous strain as they are taking fertility and ultrasound checks, their respective families are disputing their rights in the chalice pledged when they arranged the couple’s match. The intricacies of this marriage are teased out by Peli’s sister, Bara, who makes a tear fetching confession about her condition as a female in the community. As we are impatiently waiting for the resolution of the conflict, we are invited to reflect on the strength and resilience of women in a male dominated society.

  • Catalina Tesar
    Director
  • Dana Bunescu
    Director
  • Catalina Tesar
    Writer
  • Catalina Tesar
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 24 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 10, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Romania
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy, Romania
  • Language:
    Italian, Romanian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sarajevo Film Festival 2022
    sarajevo
    Bosnia and Herzegovina
    World
    Official Selection
  • ASTRA Film Festival
    Sibiu
    Romania
    National/ Romanian
    Best Documentary Award/ Section Romania
  • Eastern Neighbors Film Festival
    Hague
    Netherlands
    November 26, 2022
    Dutch
    Official Selection
  • Royal Anthropological Institute FF
    hybrid
    United Kingdom
    March 1, 2023
    British
    Werbner Award for Visual Anthropology
  • Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema
    New York
    United States
    March 31, 2023
    North American Premiere
    by invitation
  • One World Romania
    Bucharest
    Romania
    April 9, 2023
  • South East European FF
    United States
    April 26, 2023
Director Biography - Catalina Tesar, Dana Bunescu

Cătălina Tesăr teaches Anthropology at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sociology, and works as a researcher at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest. She earned her PhD in Anthropology from University College London with a thesis about the sexual, economic and political dimensions of early age arranged marriages among the Cortorari Roma from Transylvania. During her 15-year experience of fieldwork in Roma communities, she learnt Romani language. She published extensively on such issues as marriage, begging, houses, and migration among the Roma. This is her debut documentary, which is based on her PhD research. She was awarded o Fejos Postodoctoral Fellowship of the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research US for the production of the film: http://blog.wennergren.org/2018/06/fejos-postdoctoral-fellowship-catalina-tesar/

Dana Bunescu co-directed with Mona Nicoară the feature documentary “The Distance Between Me and Me” (2018). She is a well-known Romanian film editor and sound designer. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2017 Berlinale for Călin Peter Netzer’s film “Ana, mon amour”, Dana Bunescu has been working in the field since 2000. Known for editing “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” directed by Cristi Puiu (awarded the “Un certain Regard” prize in Cannes 2006), Cristian Mungiu’s films “4 Month, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” (Palme d’Or, Cannes, 2007), Andrei Ujica’s documentary “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu” (for which she also did the sound design), screened at Cannes in 2010. She is also known for the sound design and editing of “Child’s Pose” by Călin Peter Netzer, winner of Golden Bear for Best Film at Berlinale 2013, as well as for the sound design of “Aferim”, “I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians” and “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” by Radu Jude. She edited and did the sound-design of numerous documentaries. Bunescu was nominated and won several Gopo Awards for Best Editing and Sound Design.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Catalina Tesar: I have first encountered the Roma community where we later shot the documentary more than 15 years ago. Since then I kept returning there, and even lived amidst them for two years (2008-2010) for my PhD in anthropology. On that occasion I learned their language and I was “adopted” by the protagonist family of this film. Not only did they lead me by their hands into the intricacies of their culture, but they also shared with me their begging stints abroad and their life stories. I particularly became a close confidant of the youngest daughter in the family, Bara, who at the time was single and torn between the morality of the community and that of the outside world. Once married, she fully embraced the community ethical project. I wanted this film to give voice to her thoughts – and she is the story teller in the documentary, a magnetic and charismatic character, endowed with a high capacity of self-reflection-, and a representative of other women in the community. I hope that the film speaks among others about the strength and resilience of women in a male-dominated ‘traditional’ society.
The stylistic approach complies with the Roma Gypsies’ mode of being in the world. Because critical events are unpredictable and happen impromptu, the camera needs to be always ready to record and there is no time for preparing a ‘clean’ frame. It also needs to move quickly to cover the space and to single out individuals. Thus, most of the shots were filmed from hand, without a tripod. These eclectic stylistics are in tune with the characters’ personality traits and with the scenery of their houses: chaos, spontaneity, and bricolage.

Dana Bunescu: This film does a two-fold job. On the one hand, it delves into the arranged marriages of a Roma community in South Transylvania where there is a connection between the dowry paid for (most of the times) minor brides and the chalices belonging to the grooms. The chalices are objects that symbolise the status of their owner families in the community. On the other hand, the film is an honest and unprejudiced journey into the everyday life of several members of the community and an insight into the present and future of these people whose lives are torn between contemporaneity and old times. It was shot with a low budget equipment during four years both in Romania and abroad, from the point of view of the non-native who was unconditionally adopted by the community.