Love is not an orange
Original title : Love is not an orange
Directed by : Otilia Babara
Love is not an orange (2023) is a documentary by Otilia Babara, selected in the “Competition Prix PRESENT” section of the 19th edition of the Paris European Film Festival, Europe by Europe.
In 1990, Moldova was the poorest country in Europe and experienced an unprecedented wave of emigration. In this context, women were recruited and integrated into networks of sexual exploitation in Western Europe. While this context is not directly addressed in the film, it is hinted at through the long-distance exchanges between mothers and children. Mothers and wives send money and gifts from the West to their children and husbands, and families exchange videos to share their daily lives. These audiovisual family archives serve as both fragments of happiness and powerlessness and as valuable testimonies of the time and familial bond.
Photos
Press
“Through these private and intimate archives, Otilia Barbara depicts the fragility of family ties through the eyes of a generation of mothers and daughters who were forced to live separately to survive. In doing so, she paints a portrait of a post-Soviet country at a crossroads. A country whose women were responsible, unwittingly, for ensuring the transition from communism to capitalism. Emotion and History intertwine in this eminently political story.”
Charlotte Serrand, Visions du réel / Films 2023 / Highlights.
Reviews
“Caught in a long-distance relationship, mothers and daughters exchange gifts to express their love and videotapes to share their realities”.
Otilia Babara, Film freeway.
Credits
- Otilia Babara Director
- Otilia Babara Screenwriter
- Olmo van Straalen Director of Photography
- Mark Glynne Sound design
- Pierpaolo Filomeno Editing
- Olmo van Straalen Sound mixing
- Clin d'Œil Films Production
- Hanne Phlypo Producer
