The Documentary Sales Company 
Deckert Distribution presents:
The Bridge

Original title
Podul peste Tisa

Country of production
Romania

Year of production
2004

Format
Mini DV

Length
58 / 75 min

Director
Iliana Stanculescu

Production
Ileana Stanculescu in co-production with Art Doc

One of the bridges across the river Tisa has a long and complicated story: the bridge between Sighet and Slatina. Sighet is a small town in the north of Romania, close to the Romanian-Ukrainian border, and Slatina the neighbouring town on the Ukrainian bank of the Tisa.

This bridge has been build during the Austrian-Hungarian empire and destroyed shortly before the end of the Second World War.

A whole web of family, cultural and economic ties was destroyed after this war. The northern bank of the river became part of the Soviet Union while the southern bank continued to be Romanian. The river Tisa separated the two towns for more than fifty years.

Since 2000 the bridge is being rebuilt with the support of the E.U. and it's PHARE-Programme.

The reconstruction of the old bridge was finished in 2002. But people can't cross the border yet. The second round of enlargement of the EU will include Romania, which has to apply the Schengen acquis when it becomes a member of the Union and this means also to severe ties with populations and territories to which it is linked by culture and history.

The inhabitants of the two towns are still separated.

Original language:  Romanian, Ukrainian
Subtitles: English