Synopsis
The documentary sheds light on the situation of stray dogs in northern Romania and provides insights into public and private shelters, as well as the work of animal welfare activists. The story begins with Yuri, a stray dog from Baia Mare, whose adoption to Switzerland traces the problem back to its roots. The film shows how dogs end up in shelters, contextualises the situation historically and politically, and questions why obvious solutions such as neutering are rarely implemented. At the same time, it focuses on the challenges and complexity of adoptions and raises the question of a sustainable future for the dogs.
We have X dogs on the streets, and their numbers are constantly growing because every female dog has a litter twice a year. We regularly take a small number of these dogs to killing stations and put them down there. Meanwhile, the rest just keep on multiplying. One has to ask: haven’t they realised that this isn’t working, or is someone making a fortune from these killing stations?
Susy Utzinger, Animal rights activist and founder of the Susy Utzinger Stiftung für Tierschutz
What makes us stand out
fabricâine explores the issue of stray dogs not merely from a distance, but from a personal perspective. It begins with the story of an adopted dog, tracing its origins and forging a direct link between Romania and Switzerland. Furthermore, the documentary not only shows the situation on the ground, but also what happens afterwards. It combines insights into shelters and animal welfare work with the question of how sustainable current solutions really are.
The origins
After our trip to Romania in spring 2024, we continued to work on the project from time to time. However, due to other projects, the film unfortunately took a back seat. It was only towards the end of our bachelor’s thesis and our studies that it was brought back to life. Over a period of five months, we worked on it intermittently alongside our other commitments and conducted additional interviews and filming in Switzerland. Thanks to the support of the production agency Romeo and Jane, we were able to outsource a large part of our post-production to a professional editing suite, including a voice-over booth, which was extremely valuable to us.
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