Birds Way is a magical realist story, an Eastern European fairy tale - a creative documentary that follows the daily routine of an Old Believer community struggling to survive and maintain their traditions in spite of the overwhelming intrusion of modernity. The story takes place in the picturesque, isolated scenery of the Danube Delta, Romania. The protagonist is a Russian Lipovan community chased away from Russia three hundred years ago for not accepting the religious reforms of 1666. They found refuge in the Delta where they kept their language, rituals ever since... up to now. Today they have to face new problems: the absence of a religious leader, the migration of the youth, the intrusion of new colonizers… Their last 'reader' and storyteller, 75-year-old Artiom tells us the destiny of Old Believers as laid out in the Book.

The testimonies of these Old Believers about recent transformations, dying religion and their struggle to preserve archaic traditions reveal the vulnerability of a traditional community – with poetry and humour.

Klara Trencsenyi (34) is a freelance director and cinematographer doing creative and social documentaries. In 2005 she graduated from the Hungarian Film Academy, Budapest as Director of Photography. She directed two mid-length documentaries and has worked in various international productions as cinematographer (e.g. the IDFA awarded The Angelmakers, dir. Astrid Bussink, 2005). She has done extensive social and voluntary work with Roma, Irish travelers, and a photography course for Romanian orphans. She participated in A Sunday in the Country in 2008, Berlinale Talent Campus 2008 and EsoDoc 2006. Currently she is working on her fourth creative documentary.

Vlad Naumescu (32) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Central European University, Hungary. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in Ukraine and Romania and recently started fieldwork in India. His research focuses on religion and cultural transmission, on which he published two books and various articles. He teaches visual anthropology at CEU and worked as consultant for a feature-length documentary Csangos (2007) and an anthropological short, Time for Mary (2005). Birds Way is his first documentary co-directed with Klara Trencsenyi.