Marisha's blog about Moldova

Future Shorts festival in Chisinau

International festival of short films will be taking place in Chisinau on Sunday, February 26 for the first time ever.

Future Shorts is the biggest pop up film festival of its kind, showcasing the most exciting short films from around the world. Since November 2011, festival screenings have taken place in over 144 cities and 55 countries with an audience of more than 500,000 people experiencing annually showcase of the best short films, often alongside live music, DJs and art. The current Future Shorts Winter programme includes Oscar-winner God of Love, the 2011 Sundance winner Deeper than Yesterday, BAFTA-winner The Eagleman Stag, David O’Reilly’s multi-award winning The External World and the Berlin Golden Bear winning one-take wonder Incident By a Bank.

Moldova will be hosting FUTURE SHORTS for the first time and the screenings will take place on Sunday 26 February at ODEON cinema in Chisinau starting from 18:00.

Future Shorts Chisinau KISHINOW is organized by AltFilm and AutoCinema and the tickets can be booked and purchased through the organizers.

Border crossings at Albita, Cahul-Giurgiulesti and Oancea-Galati has been temporarily closed due to the weather conditions. Passage of vehicles is still possible via the other border crossings of Moldova with Romania, but queues of cars has formed at the border and the weather doesn’t help the drivers and passangers.

We had a very warm start of the winter with mild temperatures in December and everyone was waiting for the snow. But here it arrived, at the end of the winter, with abundant snow storms and temperatures below 30 causing damage to people and countries. There’s been reports on temporarily school closures (about 170 schools and nurseries in Moldova), many road accidents and houses on fire in the last 5 days.

Those of you who are brave enough to travel to Moldova in this time of the year make sure you wear warm clothing and shoes and do expect delays in your travelling. Roads in the neighbour country of Romania has been blocked with snow and there are severe delays of buses/minibuses and cars arriving from Romania. It looks like the north of Moldova has suffered the worst, so it might be a challenge to get to some of the remote places by car.

On a positive note, the winter has come in its full beauty with crystal white snow squeaking under your foot and bright winter sun warming up your heart. Kids sledging, making snowmen and throwing snowballs. What can be better!

Trafficked by Kim Purcell

ON SHELVES FEBRUARY 2012

Hannah is an ordinary teenager growing up in Moldova until her parents are killed in a terrorist bombing. While she’s still mourning the loss, she gets an offer that sounds too good to be true: a job as a nanny for a Russian family in Los Angeles.

At first, it seems like her luck has finally turned around, but life with the Platonovs quickly spirals into a nightmare. Lillian, the mother, forces Hannah to work sixteen-hour days cleaning, and won’t let her leave the house. Sergey, the father, is full of secrets. And they refuse to pay Hannah.

Stranded in a foreign land with false documents, no money, and nobody who can help her, Hannah has become a modern-day slave. And the more Hannah unravels this family’s terrible secrets, the more her life—and her family back home—are in grave danger. Desperate and lonely, she reaches out to the boy next door. But in the end, the only one who can save Hannah is herself.

More about the author : http://kimpurcell.com/bio . You can buy your copy of “Trafficked” on Amazon and on Barnes&Noble.

Moldovan airline provider AIRMOLDOVA has announced its ONLINE WINTER SALE on its main destinations for the period from 25.03.12 – 27.10.12, except 31.03.12 – 29.04.12. The special offers include: Sochi – 52EUR, Moscow – 62EUR, St.Petersburg – 62EUR, Frankfurt – 62EUR, Rome – 62EUR, Milan – 62EUR, Istanbul – 62EUR, Athens – 62EUR, Paris – 72EUR, London – 72EUR, Larnaca – 72EUR, Madrid – 92EUR, Lisbon – 92EUR / one-way, with all taxes included. Hurry as the OFFER ends on February 20!!!

Our guest from Japan Hiroaki has visited Moldova this September. He has visited Chisinau, Orheiul Vechi and Gagauzia with our guide Larisa and posted the photos of his trip on Flickr.

It’s quite a big collection and includes high quality images of Chisinau, major sights, armenian churches, Puskin museum, Chisinau market Bazar, Orheiul Vechi monastery and Comrat in Gagauzia.

A ren’t they gorgious and what a beautiful weather there was!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9167718@N02/collections/72157627762378809/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9167718@N02/collections/72157627769481123/

Our first guest in Chisinau was an Englishman exploring Moldova with Tony Hawks’s “Playing the Moldovans at Tennis” book. He was equipped with the LP Romania and Moldova guide as well, but I think he preferred Tony’s book better. He’s visited Chisinau, Orhei, Soroca and Tiraspol, all those places in Moldova that Tony visited while discovering Moldova in search for the footballers of our National Team. Many other English explorers were to visit Moldova after that and nearly every one of them either read or heard about the book. Thank you Tony for promoting our little country among the English speaker! We keep 2 copies at home in Chisinau, thus whoever didn’t read it can do it while staying with us

I am very excited about the coming film that is based on the book. It’s been filmed in 2010 in Moldova, London, Belfast and Israel. It is due for release in spring 2012.

Plot

The script sticks very closely to the original story when Tony, as he watched TV coverage of Englandbeating Moldova 4-0 in September 1997, made a wager with his friend, the comedian Arthur Smith, (Steve in the film) that he could track down all 11 of the Moldovan players and beat them at tennis.

He attempted the unlikely feat by spending several weeks in Moldova and by also taking in Ireland and Israel, but his journey took many unexpected turns and changed from a lighthearted bet to a serious desire to prove to his host family that it is possible to complete surprising and unexpected tasks and to have a positive outlook on life.

It ends with one of them stripping naked and singing the Moldovan National Anthem in South London in front of a large crowd of their friends, which, like the rest of the film, is also true.

Cast

Directors: Tony Hawks and Mikolaj Jaroszewicz
Stars:Tony Hawks as Tony, Steven Frost as Steve, Morwenna Banks as Jane, Angus Deayton as David, Laura Solon as Susan

Dear visitor thanks for stopping by! This is an attempt of blogging from Marisha, your friend from Moldova! I will be writing here about my homeland Moldova, travel tips and hints, services and errands that me and my friends provide in Chisinau, Ivancea and Tiraspol and any other little talks involving our little country. Enjoy and do participate!