Romania, 1989-90: two months after the fall of Ceauşescu, the remnants of the communist regime are burning at the stake. Emma, a 13-year-old orphan girl is taken out of boarding school by a mysterious stranger who claims to be her grandmother; from now on the girl is to live with her. The girl suspiciously follows the stranger to a new city. At school, she is marginalized by the others, as her grandmother is thought to be mad and a denunciator, who does coffee or blood readings. Emma faces all the troubles courageously, while her mistrust of the old woman turns into a close relationship – as the grandmother starts telling her stories. Her own story, family secrets and secrets of a society where many acts of violence were never investigated. It soon becomes evident that politics, society, and the story of Emma’s family are tightly connected. Through his well-known novel, the author, György Dragomán, a Hungarian born in Transylvania, who later emigrated to Hungary, paints a picture of Romania at the beginning of the 90s, going through a transition period, and governed by fear. The viewpoint of the young girl, whose growing-up process is announced by societal transformations, allows for an objective X-ray of political events.
Coproduction with Schauspiel Stuttgart, Staatsschauspiel Dresden (Germany) and Vígszínház Budapesta (Hungary)
