Bitte warten Pavel Cuzuioc

“There used to be phone booths on every corner,” says a customer. He is sitting on his sofa, talking to one of the cable technicians whose work leads Pavel Cuzuioc into a road movie through private households in Moldavia, Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. While such an assessment may seem nostalgic or reactionary at first, there is far more to it than that. By observing the work of cable repairmen, the film also focuses on communication in regions marked by poverty, nationalism, and conflict – a delicate endeavor which director balances out with a sense of absurdity. The film constantly shows that this work to help bring people in contact with the world and friends neither stops conflicts nor prevents a sense of isolation. After all, the true communication tool present for all those visited by the repairmen is the camera. They talk about their life and thus a double sense of access develops: one that is concerned with access to people, and one that is concerned with access to the modern world. As telephone cables are itself threatened by extinction in the age of digitalization, the film asks the important question of whether life is in harmony with or at war with modernization. (Patrick Holzapfel)

BITTE WARTEN begleitet Telekommunikationstechniker in Moldavien, Rumänien, Bulgarien und der Ukraine beim Außendienst. Es werden TV-Geräte, Modems, Telefon- und Internetkabel repariert, entwirrt und angeschlossen. Doch eigentlich geht es um das menschliche Streben nach Verbindung und sein Scheitern, um das Dasein in der Warteschleife – oft der einzige Moment für existenzielle Fragen. Jeder Kunde in seinem Wohnzimmer entpuppt sich als sein eigener Planet, und wenn der Techniker auf Kriegsveteranen, Philosophen und alte Frauen trifft, zeigt sich: die Technologie hat die Kommunikation beschleunigt, das Leben ist dasselbe geblieben. (Viennale - Maria Marchetta)