The World as the Mirror for Moldova

Cultural-Informational Project
«The Dniester as a territory of life»

In spite of the rich past and uniqueness of the land between the Prut and the Dniester rivers, in spite of attractiveness of its historical, ethnographic and natural and landscape zones for international tourism, as well as interest as such, Moldova still remains hardly noticeable. Even its own citizens do not give their country a high score. For some of them, many places of interest and facts of their past come as a sheer surprise...

«Stephan The Great – 500 Years of Heritage» Project

Do we know our past? Do we know our country? Do we know the heritage that was left to us by our ancestors?.. Stephan is Moldova’s national hero. He is the symbol of its independent statehood. What do we actually know about him? What do we actually know about our cultural heritage … and about ourselves?

«Turkey – Moldova:
No Conquered Or Conquerors» Project

It has been for some recent developments and a number of historical reasons that Turkey has acquired its negative image of Moldova’s eternal enemy. This fact is still a destructive background underlying bilateral cooperation. However, an approach to history of mutual relations as to history of conquerors and the conquered lags behind the modern perception of the past, and, moreover, it will present an absolute danger in the future. It does not account for the most important thing, i.e. for what is common in our cultural heritage...

«Discovery of Bulgaria» Project

Excavations on the settlement Ruino – Kartal-kale (2000-2002) discovered ruins of a very interesting fortress dated by the First Bulgarian Kingdom. Its walls by their strength are second only to fortifications of a capital, and the inner quarters are the widest ones of the so far discovered. After two terrible fires, connected with wars of the Kiev knyaz Svyatoslav and invasion of the Petchenegers, the population was forced to leave this locality forever.

HEADLINES - PRESS RELEASES - PICTURE STORIES

MOLDOVA REFLECTED BY THE DNIESTER

The Fund for Cultural Initiatives The World as the Mirror for Moldova emerged two years ago. «The Unknown Stephan» has been its only project so far, but rather one of a kind for Moldova. It shows our country’s past in a special light, i.e. deprived of customary provincialism… Alexander Burean, Executive Director of the Fund, tells about the Fund’s current activities.

- The Unknown Stephan’s production stage was closely monitored by mass media. It’s been a year already since we last heard about your organization. What are your current activities?

- We are now working on our new project, The Dniester as the Territory of Life. To some extent, it is a continuation to the first one. More specifically, we go on implementing the Fund’s ideas and concept. We want to try and get rid of Moldova’s traditional image, which is based on its national cultural heritage. It is OK about vineyards, or tender sounds of a fluer or a panpipe, or national cuisine, but these are stereotypes. They make one overlook richness and heritage of one’s native land, which we are not aware of yet, unfortunately. Moldova has quite many other things, equally interesting and fascinating, even for its citizens. Such things must be merely told.

- It seems we do not know anything about our land. Are you going to set it right and «discover» it?

- The first project had a bulk of amazing discoveries in stock for our citizens. However, every fact connected with Stephan, who is a symbol of our statehood, was just lying on the surface. I believe The Dniester as the Territory of Life will bring numerous insights. In fact, the Fund does not make any discoveries; it rather tries to promote what we already have. We are talking about the place of our birth. And it has its own past. Not a state’s past, but, rather a land’s past… A land where many cultures get into contact and where our ancestors could build a state, having inherited everything there was here before them!

A TRAVEL TO THE TERRITORY OF LIFE

- So what is the purpose of The Dniester as the Territory of Life Project?

- The Dniester is a major water-way in the North-Western Black Sea region. It has been center of human activity, always. Life was in full swing on its both banks. Due to its geographic location, it has developed into a peculiar contact or buffer zone. A contact zone between what, it does not matter. The main idea here – it has always been one, almost. Since the Iron Age, it has been a border between the nomads and the farmers. It was called «the gate of the Christianity» in the Middle Ages, to be called «Europe’s public thoroughfare» somewhat later. The Dniester River’s both banks are still a contact zone between the East and the West.

The Dniester unites Moldova’s cultural and historical centers, its tourist sites and mere cultural peculiarities of its inhabitants who belong to different nationalities and even to different linguistic groups. Moldovans, Bulgarians, Gagauz, Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Poles – the Dniester’s banks have become a homeland, or a territory of life for many of them. That is why we will try to discover Moldova through the Dniester – through its enigmatic history, overwhelming landscapes and philosophy of people who live on its banks.

- To my knowledge, you were going to present the project this year. Have your plans changed?

- We hoped to keep to the schedule, but the project turned out to be quite complex and effort-consuming, especially its technical aspects. We have been busy all this year preparing various equipment items for expeditions and spending time on «trial» shootings on the Dniester. We have to shoot in the air, to dive in the river with the camera, to be quick enough to shoot the banks from our catamarans, and be careful enough not to drown. Besides, we had to test our new equipment.

The main part of shootings will be done while rafting downstream by three sailing catamarans, accompanied by an aqua-hang-glider. It is a serious travel, the result of which you will soon see on screen. So we do have many things to prepare. Moreover, Moldova has not yet seen a film production of this kind, for sure.

- What have your trial trips shown?

- We had a number of rafting trips downstream from Naslavcea to Holercani. And you know, we got more and more convinced that our project would be a success. When you are rafting downstream, you perceive Moldova in an absolutely new light. Hopefully, we will succeed in sharing these unknown sights with every citizen of our country. Frankly speaking, there were many interesting things for us we had not known about. Again, it proved that we, citizens of Moldova, know too little about our country. Its landscapes, people, history and sites are hardly known by anyone.

- In your project, will you limit your scope only to the Moldovan part of the Dniester?

- We are planning to visit every site from the river head to the Black Sea. I should repeat it again, we are interested in the land’s past rather than the state’s one. If I am to speak about cultural and historical aspects of the TV project, then this view on Moldova is going to be quite interesting.

- And are you planning to put it all in one TV Project?

- I think we will have several episodes.

- When do you plan to launch the shooting?

- The expedition down the Dniester and the shooting are scheduled in May 2006. You will watch The Dniester as the Territory of Life on your TV channels in late 2007. Moreover, regular accounts of the expedition will be appear in newspapers and on TV. I hope the project will be interesting not only to specialists, but also to a general public. So just follow the promos.