Home Alone – a Romanian Tragedy
25 min. version
The English Subtitles
00:01:11-00;01:12
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Give it to me.
00:01:13-00:01:15
Stefan Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
Robert, why are you stepping on the grave ?
You’re not supposed to.
00:01:15-00:01:16
Robert Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
But I didn’t realize.
00:01:18-00:01:20
Stefan Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
You’re stepping on Claudiu!
00:01:21-00:01:23
Robert Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
- Am I stepping on Claudiu mother?
- Yes, dear.
- Put it like this.
- It’s OK.
00:01:54-00:02:23
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
My mother would tell him he should learn,
be a bright boy,
so she could be proud of him.
That’s what she’d say.
And he’d laugh.
“I’ll be a shepherd”, he’d say,
joking with my mother.
To make her laugh. I told you,
he knew on the spot what to say.
00:02:38-00:02:53
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He was diligent, well-behaved,
faithful, he went to church.
He was shy. Yes, a bit shy…
00:02:54-00:03:05
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
Culin... His name was Nicolae,
but were calling him Culin.
I’d often ask him
if he missed his mother.
He replied that if I wasn’t here,
maybe, but since I was by their side…
00:03:24-00:03:46
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Robert, it’s time to go to school.
Stefan, my boy, come.
Now you’re sleeping,
when it’s time for school.
Wake up, come on Stefan.
00:03:47-00:05:29
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
We had no income, nothing.
Nothing but the children’s allowances.
It’s when the ordeal began.
Nothing to eat…
I had Robert.
He was tiny, I’d given birth…
At one point,
I had nothing to feed Robert.
There were three days in a row
when I had been asking at the store
for a kilo of rice and a kilo of sugar.
We had credit, and she didn’t want
to give us anymore.
We starved for three days.
Claudiu would go
because he was braver.
I was telling him to go
and ask the woman for something.
When he’d leave, I’d put the water
to boil so they could eat right away.
In the end, she’d have enough
and give us something,
I’d boil it and feed the children.
But I wouldn't get the chance to eat.
The kids asked for more,
but I had nothing more to give.
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
A relative of mine was coming by
and she saw the poverty.
She’d bring us food, everything.
And once she told me
to go to Italy.
She said she would help me
to find a family to work for,
in order to escape that poverty.
What else could I do ?
I thought I’d stay for three months
and come back home.
The children told me to go.
Everything that I did,
I’d talk about with the kids.
I told them
they’d be left with their father.
They said they’d manage.
In the end I decided, and left.
00:05:30-00:05:56
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
When Razvan turned one, we moved,
we bought this place here
and of course that ever since
we’ve been struggling
to be in line with others.
The prices nowadays…
the salaries are low,
and we can barely survive.
You don’t live,
but you don’t die either.
00:05:57-00: 06:30
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I used to work as a tester
here at the school lab,
and then as a substitute teacher.
Someone left and I took his place
for a year or two
and afterwards
I taught Russian for a while
until it didn’t work anymore.
There was a Russian department
but they replaced
it with English,
other international languages
and my job was gone.
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
Unemployment again and back at home.
I was a baker, a musician,
many things, I do not even know how many…
Now I’m a mason.
One has to learn, there is no other way.
00:06:45-00:07:08
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
In the morning, on his way to school,
he’d come to my workplace
to take something.
On the way back, the same.
While I was away for one month,
maybe he missed me,
going past the store
without me there.
Nobody giving him anything...
Maybe he was hurting.
00:07:11-00:07:27
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He’s coming from his grandmother
with the pots.
Yes.
I got another towel,
because I had only bought two.
Yes.
00:07:29-00:07:55
Iustin Mosneagu, Nicolae’s brother:
Hello ? Fine.
I only stayed for two hours today.
With teacher Marinici.
No, he…
Yes, I still have some homework to do.
Yes.
00:07:56-00:07:57
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
Grandma’s on the way.
00:07:58-00:08:11
Iustin Mosneagu, Nicolae’s brother:
I’ll put grandma on the phone.
Yes, mom,
but wait for her to come inside.
I’ll pass her on now.
00:08:14-00:08:28
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
- Hello ?
(phone)Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
- Good day. Happy birthday !
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
- Thank you, my dear.
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I know it’s from a distance.
Still hanging in ?
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
Yes. I’ve arrived from the valley just now,
I have to start working for tomorrow.
00:08;43-00:09:30
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I first came in 2006.
...2005-2006
I left home because of the poverty.
You’ve seen the situation there.
We have a house,
but if you don’t preserve it,
it falls apart.
We said that one of us has to go,
to do something.
And we decided that I should leave.
It was difficult at first.
To go among strangers,
not knowing the language, anybody.
It’s not easy to go away,
to leave the family and to come here.
00:09:31-00:09:50
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
I graduated a trade school
and got a job as a tractor driver
until the Revolution.
Then I became unemployed.
I worked with my horse in the forest,
for the forestry department,
for private companies.
In ’92, I got married,
we had two children.
00:9:51-00:10:35
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
My eldest son was a part of my soul,
I used to talk to him
about everything.
Even when I left, we talked on the phone.
I told him to give me a call
and I’d call back.
He’d tell me everything.
Many said he thought like a grown up.
I talked to him like
with my own mother.
To talk to a 12 year old child
like that… He always was like that.
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
One day before, I talked to his father,
to take some money and buy him a bike.
I also talked to him.
He had finished school,
he was happy.
00:10:36-00:10:57
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
I left the house in the morning
and took my youngest son with me.
I left him at home
and told him to feed
the calf, the chicken and the pigs.
He asked me if he could go
afterwards to his grandmother.
I said yes,
but he was supposed to come back
to give them water, to feed them again.
00:10:58- 00:11:11
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
He picked some cherries from the tree
and saw the boys going swimming.
It was a warm sunny day.
He went for a bathe.
00:11:16-00;11:26
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
He saw me coming
He ran and hugged me.
He told me: “I had
a bath like no other,
I don’t think I'll ever have one like it”,
that’s what he said.
00:11:31-00:12:03
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
In the evening, before disaster struck,
at 6 o’clock,
I told both to come home,
from my mother-in-law’s in the valley.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes,
Iustinel called me crying.
“Dad, come quick, Culin tied
me up to the corn storage area”.
That’s what I understood.
00:12:14-00:12:43
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
My youngest son was crying
by the road.
I asked him what had happened.
I didn’t even tie the horse.
I threw the reigns
on the neighbor’s fence.
“What happened, Iustinel ?”
“Come and see Culin...”
I was looking on the ground, not…
there where he was hanging from.
00:12:44-00:13:35
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I asked him if he was hungry.
He didn’t want to eat.
It was quite warm outside.
He said he wouldn’t eat then.
Whatever he could have done…
I went inside to prepare food for the dog.
From this point on, I don’t know.
He was hitting a nail,
but he used to hit nails
everywhere, in the fence, everywhere...
I heard he was hitting a nail,
but I didn’t pay any attention to it.
How was I to know,
if only I had seen his face,
heard him sighing, see him crying,
to have at least said something,
to give some clue…
But I had no idea.
He hit that nail for his hanging...
When I came into the yard,
from this building here,
I saw him hanging.
00:13:47-00:14:27
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I saw his legs under that blind,
he was swaying.
I thought he was doing exercises.
He could catch that beam.
I thought he was building muscles.
He was everywhere, did everything…
And when I looked up and saw him,
his tongue was out, he was dead.
I didn’t take his pulse,
I immediately went to get a knife.
I put the knife down.
I tried to loosen the knot,
but I couldn’t.
I left him hanging once more
and I bent over for the knife to cut it.
I laid him here. I was shouting...
00:14:28-00:14:51
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
After two months in Italy,
I got a call from my husband.
He said he’d take the kids
to my sister’s in Leorda
and come to join me here.
I didn’t agree, I told him
to stay at home with the children.
My sister told me that he left
the children at her door and left.
One day I found him at the Caritas.
So he came to Italy and stayed.
00:14:52-00:15:12
Mariana Petrea, Claudiu’s aunt:
That day, my husband went
to the market.
I stayed for fifteen minutes
until he returned.
He put some coffee on,
twenty minutes had gone by,
and then he asked me about Claudiu.
I told him to go check the toilet.
When he went, he saw him hanging
and began to scream...
00:15:14-00:16:03
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
I received a call and my husband said
my niece from Spain was on the phone.
And he passed the phone to me.
She told me that something awful
had occurred at home.
I asked what had happened.
Her mother told her everything.
Claudiu hanged himself
behind their house.
When I heard I started screaming.
I couldn’t believe it.
I was awake all night,
I didn’t know what to do.
I improvised a candle.
I did not sleep, couldn’t believe it.
I was crying, screaming…
I started to blame my husband,
I told him it was his fault.
00:16:15-00:16:29
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I dreamt about him,
I could not sleep at night,
wondering why he’d done such a thing.
Since he was a churchgoer and so on…
I dreamt about him.
He was dressed in white,
telling me he didn’t do it,
that he was by our side, with us.
00:16:36-00:17:03
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
It’s not easy for a mother to leave.
I was asked how come I wasn’t crazy.
But who’ll look after my youngest son
if I fall ill ?
I’m a strong person,
but I’m afraid I’ll go mad.
00:17:04-00:18:19
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
My sister told those people,
since she knew them well…
She told the niece and the elders
for whom I worked
what had happened in Romania.
They weren’t supposed to tell
me what happened.
The pretext was that the old woman
was going to an asylum
and I was out of a job.
I had to come back to Romania
because I had no job
and I didn’t speak the language.
What was I supposed to learn,
in one month, with an old lady indoors ?
They found a bus for me…
I didn’t imagine what had happened.
It never crossed my mind.
After arriving in Iasi, I finally understood
all the discussions in the bus...
I realized what had happened.
The driver, after going on the bus,
asked me if I was the person
who had bought the ticket that day
because my son had just died.
I was asked and I didn’t realize
that I was the person in question.
I answered that it was not me,
that probably it was somebody else.
00:18:20-00:18:26
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
In Iasi, when she got off the bus,
my sister-in-law and my nieces
were all dressed in black.
00:18:27-00:19:43
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
When I arrived, they were crying
and didn’t dare to tell me
what had happened.
I asked them what happened.
I thought about my parents,
not about Razvan.
Not even for a second.
I asked them: “Did something
happen to my parents ?“
They kept on saying “no, no”,
but didn’t dare to tell me about Razvan.
When I came I found him
in the coffin, at home.
I never thought I’d go away,
I thought it would be for our good.
I thought that if it all went fine in Italy
and I learned the language,
then after we could go
and our family would be better off.
I never thought I’d destroy my life.
Ever since Razvan died,
my whole life has changed completely.
I don’t have the same courage
to do things,
to see the world as before.
I see it all completely different now.
Anything I do,
it seems it’s not as good.
A piece of my soul is gone.
00:19:44-00:20:29
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
It’s just me and my three small kids
and my son Florin who is married.
He has a three month-old daughter.
I am very ill,
but I won’t give up.
I can endure a lot.
No matter how hard it is,
when I’m out of breath,
I only give up if I fall to the ground.
This is how I care for them.
Everyone sees me carrying heavy bags,
they ask themselves for how long...
But I get by. I go to the priest,
because he knows my situation.
I go to the canteen.
This is how I get by.
All the churches know me.
00:20:30-00:20:52
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Don’t run on the streets.
Just one moment.
It’s OK, go !
I love you, mother.
Take care. Be nice.
- Bye.
- Behave well. Don’t run, you have time.
- OK ?
- Yes. Bye!
00:20:53-00:21:33
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He sometimes finds his brother’s clothes.
We’ve given some away. Shoes, clothes.
He finds them and tells me:
“This one is, you know whose”…
“Whose is it”, I pretend I don’t understand.
“You know very well... Culin's”...
It hurts, but this is life...
00:21:47-00:22:13
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
Things got slightly better
when Robert was born.
No matter how upset or sad I am,
when I see him laughing, waking up,
talking to me,
I get the strength
and it seems I forget about everything.
If it hadn’t been for him,
I don’t know what
would have become of us.
00:22:14-00:22:45
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
You great kid!
Come on, hit the barrel for a bit.
Let daddy pull you up, don't be afraid.
I see
you’re not letting go of the hammer.
...hit the barrel for a bit.
Where ist the barrel?
25 min. version
The English Subtitles
00:01:11-00;01:12
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Give it to me.
00:01:13-00:01:15
Stefan Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
Robert, why are you stepping on the grave ?
You’re not supposed to.
00:01:15-00:01:16
Robert Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
But I didn’t realize.
00:01:18-00:01:20
Stefan Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
You’re stepping on Claudiu!
00:01:21-00:01:23
Robert Ira, Claudiu’s brother:
- Am I stepping on Claudiu mother?
- Yes, dear.
- Put it like this.
- It’s OK.
00:01:54-00:02:23
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
My mother would tell him he should learn,
be a bright boy,
so she could be proud of him.
That’s what she’d say.
And he’d laugh.
“I’ll be a shepherd”, he’d say,
joking with my mother.
To make her laugh. I told you,
he knew on the spot what to say.
00:02:38-00:02:53
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He was diligent, well-behaved,
faithful, he went to church.
He was shy. Yes, a bit shy…
00:02:54-00:03:05
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
Culin... His name was Nicolae,
but were calling him Culin.
I’d often ask him
if he missed his mother.
He replied that if I wasn’t here,
maybe, but since I was by their side…
00:03:24-00:03:46
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Robert, it’s time to go to school.
Stefan, my boy, come.
Now you’re sleeping,
when it’s time for school.
Wake up, come on Stefan.
00:03:47-00:05:29
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
We had no income, nothing.
Nothing but the children’s allowances.
It’s when the ordeal began.
Nothing to eat…
I had Robert.
He was tiny, I’d given birth…
At one point,
I had nothing to feed Robert.
There were three days in a row
when I had been asking at the store
for a kilo of rice and a kilo of sugar.
We had credit, and she didn’t want
to give us anymore.
We starved for three days.
Claudiu would go
because he was braver.
I was telling him to go
and ask the woman for something.
When he’d leave, I’d put the water
to boil so they could eat right away.
In the end, she’d have enough
and give us something,
I’d boil it and feed the children.
But I wouldn't get the chance to eat.
The kids asked for more,
but I had nothing more to give.
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
A relative of mine was coming by
and she saw the poverty.
She’d bring us food, everything.
And once she told me
to go to Italy.
She said she would help me
to find a family to work for,
in order to escape that poverty.
What else could I do ?
I thought I’d stay for three months
and come back home.
The children told me to go.
Everything that I did,
I’d talk about with the kids.
I told them
they’d be left with their father.
They said they’d manage.
In the end I decided, and left.
00:05:30-00:05:56
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
When Razvan turned one, we moved,
we bought this place here
and of course that ever since
we’ve been struggling
to be in line with others.
The prices nowadays…
the salaries are low,
and we can barely survive.
You don’t live,
but you don’t die either.
00:05:57-00: 06:30
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I used to work as a tester
here at the school lab,
and then as a substitute teacher.
Someone left and I took his place
for a year or two
and afterwards
I taught Russian for a while
until it didn’t work anymore.
There was a Russian department
but they replaced
it with English,
other international languages
and my job was gone.
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
Unemployment again and back at home.
I was a baker, a musician,
many things, I do not even know how many…
Now I’m a mason.
One has to learn, there is no other way.
00:06:45-00:07:08
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
In the morning, on his way to school,
he’d come to my workplace
to take something.
On the way back, the same.
While I was away for one month,
maybe he missed me,
going past the store
without me there.
Nobody giving him anything...
Maybe he was hurting.
00:07:11-00:07:27
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He’s coming from his grandmother
with the pots.
Yes.
I got another towel,
because I had only bought two.
Yes.
00:07:29-00:07:55
Iustin Mosneagu, Nicolae’s brother:
Hello ? Fine.
I only stayed for two hours today.
With teacher Marinici.
No, he…
Yes, I still have some homework to do.
Yes.
00:07:56-00:07:57
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
Grandma’s on the way.
00:07:58-00:08:11
Iustin Mosneagu, Nicolae’s brother:
I’ll put grandma on the phone.
Yes, mom,
but wait for her to come inside.
I’ll pass her on now.
00:08:14-00:08:28
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
- Hello ?
(phone)Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
- Good day. Happy birthday !
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
- Thank you, my dear.
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I know it’s from a distance.
Still hanging in ?
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
Yes. I’ve arrived from the valley just now,
I have to start working for tomorrow.
00:08;43-00:09:30
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I first came in 2006.
...2005-2006
I left home because of the poverty.
You’ve seen the situation there.
We have a house,
but if you don’t preserve it,
it falls apart.
We said that one of us has to go,
to do something.
And we decided that I should leave.
It was difficult at first.
To go among strangers,
not knowing the language, anybody.
It’s not easy to go away,
to leave the family and to come here.
00:09:31-00:09:50
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
I graduated a trade school
and got a job as a tractor driver
until the Revolution.
Then I became unemployed.
I worked with my horse in the forest,
for the forestry department,
for private companies.
In ’92, I got married,
we had two children.
00:9:51-00:10:35
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
My eldest son was a part of my soul,
I used to talk to him
about everything.
Even when I left, we talked on the phone.
I told him to give me a call
and I’d call back.
He’d tell me everything.
Many said he thought like a grown up.
I talked to him like
with my own mother.
To talk to a 12 year old child
like that… He always was like that.
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
One day before, I talked to his father,
to take some money and buy him a bike.
I also talked to him.
He had finished school,
he was happy.
00:10:36-00:10:57
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
I left the house in the morning
and took my youngest son with me.
I left him at home
and told him to feed
the calf, the chicken and the pigs.
He asked me if he could go
afterwards to his grandmother.
I said yes,
but he was supposed to come back
to give them water, to feed them again.
00:10:58- 00:11:11
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
He picked some cherries from the tree
and saw the boys going swimming.
It was a warm sunny day.
He went for a bathe.
00:11:16-00;11:26
Elena Radu, Nicolae’s grandmother:
He saw me coming
He ran and hugged me.
He told me: “I had
a bath like no other,
I don’t think I'll ever have one like it”,
that’s what he said.
00:11:31-00:12:03
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
In the evening, before disaster struck,
at 6 o’clock,
I told both to come home,
from my mother-in-law’s in the valley.
After about fifteen or twenty minutes,
Iustinel called me crying.
“Dad, come quick, Culin tied
me up to the corn storage area”.
That’s what I understood.
00:12:14-00:12:43
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
My youngest son was crying
by the road.
I asked him what had happened.
I didn’t even tie the horse.
I threw the reigns
on the neighbor’s fence.
“What happened, Iustinel ?”
“Come and see Culin...”
I was looking on the ground, not…
there where he was hanging from.
00:12:44-00:13:35
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I asked him if he was hungry.
He didn’t want to eat.
It was quite warm outside.
He said he wouldn’t eat then.
Whatever he could have done…
I went inside to prepare food for the dog.
From this point on, I don’t know.
He was hitting a nail,
but he used to hit nails
everywhere, in the fence, everywhere...
I heard he was hitting a nail,
but I didn’t pay any attention to it.
How was I to know,
if only I had seen his face,
heard him sighing, see him crying,
to have at least said something,
to give some clue…
But I had no idea.
He hit that nail for his hanging...
When I came into the yard,
from this building here,
I saw him hanging.
00:13:47-00:14:27
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
I saw his legs under that blind,
he was swaying.
I thought he was doing exercises.
He could catch that beam.
I thought he was building muscles.
He was everywhere, did everything…
And when I looked up and saw him,
his tongue was out, he was dead.
I didn’t take his pulse,
I immediately went to get a knife.
I put the knife down.
I tried to loosen the knot,
but I couldn’t.
I left him hanging once more
and I bent over for the knife to cut it.
I laid him here. I was shouting...
00:14:28-00:14:51
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
After two months in Italy,
I got a call from my husband.
He said he’d take the kids
to my sister’s in Leorda
and come to join me here.
I didn’t agree, I told him
to stay at home with the children.
My sister told me that he left
the children at her door and left.
One day I found him at the Caritas.
So he came to Italy and stayed.
00:14:52-00:15:12
Mariana Petrea, Claudiu’s aunt:
That day, my husband went
to the market.
I stayed for fifteen minutes
until he returned.
He put some coffee on,
twenty minutes had gone by,
and then he asked me about Claudiu.
I told him to go check the toilet.
When he went, he saw him hanging
and began to scream...
00:15:14-00:16:03
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
I received a call and my husband said
my niece from Spain was on the phone.
And he passed the phone to me.
She told me that something awful
had occurred at home.
I asked what had happened.
Her mother told her everything.
Claudiu hanged himself
behind their house.
When I heard I started screaming.
I couldn’t believe it.
I was awake all night,
I didn’t know what to do.
I improvised a candle.
I did not sleep, couldn’t believe it.
I was crying, screaming…
I started to blame my husband,
I told him it was his fault.
00:16:15-00:16:29
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
I dreamt about him,
I could not sleep at night,
wondering why he’d done such a thing.
Since he was a churchgoer and so on…
I dreamt about him.
He was dressed in white,
telling me he didn’t do it,
that he was by our side, with us.
00:16:36-00:17:03
Mariana Mosneagu, Nicolae’s mother:
It’s not easy for a mother to leave.
I was asked how come I wasn’t crazy.
But who’ll look after my youngest son
if I fall ill ?
I’m a strong person,
but I’m afraid I’ll go mad.
00:17:04-00:18:19
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
My sister told those people,
since she knew them well…
She told the niece and the elders
for whom I worked
what had happened in Romania.
They weren’t supposed to tell
me what happened.
The pretext was that the old woman
was going to an asylum
and I was out of a job.
I had to come back to Romania
because I had no job
and I didn’t speak the language.
What was I supposed to learn,
in one month, with an old lady indoors ?
They found a bus for me…
I didn’t imagine what had happened.
It never crossed my mind.
After arriving in Iasi, I finally understood
all the discussions in the bus...
I realized what had happened.
The driver, after going on the bus,
asked me if I was the person
who had bought the ticket that day
because my son had just died.
I was asked and I didn’t realize
that I was the person in question.
I answered that it was not me,
that probably it was somebody else.
00:18:20-00:18:26
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
In Iasi, when she got off the bus,
my sister-in-law and my nieces
were all dressed in black.
00:18:27-00:19:43
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
When I arrived, they were crying
and didn’t dare to tell me
what had happened.
I asked them what happened.
I thought about my parents,
not about Razvan.
Not even for a second.
I asked them: “Did something
happen to my parents ?“
They kept on saying “no, no”,
but didn’t dare to tell me about Razvan.
When I came I found him
in the coffin, at home.
I never thought I’d go away,
I thought it would be for our good.
I thought that if it all went fine in Italy
and I learned the language,
then after we could go
and our family would be better off.
I never thought I’d destroy my life.
Ever since Razvan died,
my whole life has changed completely.
I don’t have the same courage
to do things,
to see the world as before.
I see it all completely different now.
Anything I do,
it seems it’s not as good.
A piece of my soul is gone.
00:19:44-00:20:29
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
It’s just me and my three small kids
and my son Florin who is married.
He has a three month-old daughter.
I am very ill,
but I won’t give up.
I can endure a lot.
No matter how hard it is,
when I’m out of breath,
I only give up if I fall to the ground.
This is how I care for them.
Everyone sees me carrying heavy bags,
they ask themselves for how long...
But I get by. I go to the priest,
because he knows my situation.
I go to the canteen.
This is how I get by.
All the churches know me.
00:20:30-00:20:52
Claudia Ira, Claudiu’s mother:
Don’t run on the streets.
Just one moment.
It’s OK, go !
I love you, mother.
Take care. Be nice.
- Bye.
- Behave well. Don’t run, you have time.
- OK ?
- Yes. Bye!
00:20:53-00:21:33
Nicolae Mosneagu, Nicolae’s father:
He sometimes finds his brother’s clothes.
We’ve given some away. Shoes, clothes.
He finds them and tells me:
“This one is, you know whose”…
“Whose is it”, I pretend I don’t understand.
“You know very well... Culin's”...
It hurts, but this is life...
00:21:47-00:22:13
Liliana Suculiuc, Razvan’s mother:
Things got slightly better
when Robert was born.
No matter how upset or sad I am,
when I see him laughing, waking up,
talking to me,
I get the strength
and it seems I forget about everything.
If it hadn’t been for him,
I don’t know what
would have become of us.
00:22:14-00:22:45
Catalin Suculiuc, Razvan’s father:
You great kid!
Come on, hit the barrel for a bit.
Let daddy pull you up, don't be afraid.
I see
you’re not letting go of the hammer.
...hit the barrel for a bit.
Where ist the barrel?