- Occupation
Producer, Director - Country
Ireland
Auner Dieter
Leaving Transylvania
'Leaving Transylvania' documents the exodus of the Transylvanian Saxons from Romania. The massive emigration from the early 90's wiped villages out and endangered the 800 years old cultural heritage. A continuation of this unique Eastern European minority seems impossible. The film exposes the dramatic steps before emigration and shows the disorientation of elderly Saxon couples from a village called Arbegen. Loneliness, fear of displacement, intermixed with a dose of healthy humour, charges the film with intense emotions and brings an unknown human story to life.
Off the Beaten Track
The film chronicles one year in the life of Albin and his family of shepherds in the North of Transylvania. In direct cinema style, this documentary follows their day to day routines, and their struggle to adapt to a new world where traditions are gradually replaced by modern values. Since joining the EU, Romania has been facing, like several other Eastern European countries, the pressure of modern values, introducing in farmer's lives the cruel notion of competition, the temptation of migrating to the higher salaries abroad, and the marginalisation of locally produced food against industrial products.
'Leaving Transylvania' documents the exodus of the Transylvanian Saxons from Romania. The massive emigration from the early 90's wiped villages out and endangered the 800 years old cultural heritage. A continuation of this unique Eastern European minority seems impossible. The film exposes the dramatic steps before emigration and shows the disorientation of elderly Saxon couples from a village called Arbegen. Loneliness, fear of displacement, intermixed with a dose of healthy humour, charges the film with intense emotions and brings an unknown human story to life.
Off the Beaten Track
The film chronicles one year in the life of Albin and his family of shepherds in the North of Transylvania. In direct cinema style, this documentary follows their day to day routines, and their struggle to adapt to a new world where traditions are gradually replaced by modern values. Since joining the EU, Romania has been facing, like several other Eastern European countries, the pressure of modern values, introducing in farmer's lives the cruel notion of competition, the temptation of migrating to the higher salaries abroad, and the marginalisation of locally produced food against industrial products.
Dieter Auner, born in 1970 in Medias, then communist Romania. After being released early from the military service in Sibiu, he emigrated to Germany following the mass exodus of the Transylvanian Saxons in the early 1990s. He studied physics at the Fr. Wilhelm University in Bonn and moved to Galway in 1996. Since then he developed as a photographer and filmmaker, focusing on Romania, his lost homeland. Some exhibitions and many publications followed. Throughout the years Dieter officially documented the major arts events in Galway and contributed to many national and international film productions as a stills photographer. The departure of his last relatives from Transylvania in 2001 led to his first feature documentary film, entitled Leaving Translylvania, completed in 2006.
Dieter Auner
6 Fearnog, Lower Clybaun Road
Galway Cou
6 Fearnog, Lower Clybaun Road
Galway Cou