One of the events of this summer at AlmaCalma was a screening of Aftersun, preceded by a wonderful dinner prepared with local ingredients by chef Dana Graură.
I want to share a few thoughts about the film and the dinner. But I should say from the outset that neither the film nor the dinner would have felt the same with different people or in a different place. It is interesting how deeply our perception of what we see or taste depends on the invisible threads between people, on the energy and feelings we pass on to one another without even realising it. And on the way we feel in a particular space: a film watched outdoors, in the middle of the village of Alma Vii, is somehow different from the same film watched on television, just as food brought into the barn tastes different from food served in a restaurant. To a great extent, these invisible connections and this spirit of place defined the evening. We are grateful to everyone who joined us and made it such a beautiful one.
As for dinner, we were once again impressed by what chef Dana Graură does. By the quality of the food and its memorable flavours, by the way she showcases Transylvania and the wonderful ingredients it has to offer, and by the way she brings people together, giving them confidence in what they have and in what they can build together. For AlmaCalma, working with Dana Graură was a great joy, and we hope our paths will cross as often as possible. For our guests, we believe the food felt completely at home in this place, on this summer evening, and in the simple pleasure of being together.
As for the film, it is the kind of film you need to be in the right state of mind for, willing to let it reach doors you usually keep closed. For someone like me, who deeply loved an extraordinary father yet understood so little of him, who was left with countless small and large questions never asked, who keeps returning in thought to a childhood whose image is always changing, and who still aches for the time that was suddenly taken away, Aftersun is deeply moving, at times even overwhelming. And yet sadness is not what prevails. In that blurred image of childhood which the film asks us to look at honestly, we probably all recognise warmth, confusion, laughter and hope, a mixture of everything in proportions that are constantly shifting. When the film ends, you can feel all the cracks and seams within you, but you are glad that you are still, somehow, whole, a whole you can look at with greater understanding. And that somewhere, there may still be a meeting, an answer, a dance together.
Summer has ended in Alma Vii, and we still marvel at how full and intense it was. We slept little and worked a lot. We did all sorts of things we did not know we were capable of, but we also missed quite a few things simply because there was no time left for them. We filled ourselves with sunlight, with the kindness of those we love, with the energy of new experiences, and with the hope that all of it will keep us warm through the winter and give us ideas that will keep us busy and passionate about what we do.
With gratitude:
Dana Graură – Casa Terra (Făgăraș) și Hermania (Sibiu)
