Behind the Masks

This film is based on Rodica Negre’s field work for her PhD in European/cultural anthropology. It concentrates on a group of young people who have worked illegally in Belgium, their relations with the home-village and the cross-control: the village’s control on these young people but these also intervene in the home affairs of the village.

A particular manifestation of this control is the satirical poems declaimed in the front of the village; this manifestation is made possible by the use of the masks which gives a relative anonymity for the speaker. The relative anarchy of this group is in high contrast with the other actors of the winter holidays, namely with the “emperors”.

These masks have been deployed also in Brussels. On 31 December 1999, the Belgians discovered with surprise masked Romanians in the Grande Place area. That was the discovery of a new migration in Belgium.

Behind the masks are to be found authentic "cultural brokers" who support the cultural exchange between East and West, between Romania and Belgium, far from the sad and miserable image of black market workers.