Production: Cristian Fierbinteanu, Bogdan Stamatin
Authors: Cristian Fierbinteanu, Bogdan Stamatin
Producers: Cristian Fierbinteanu, Gabriela Fierbinteanu
Director: Cristian Fierbinteanu
Sound engineer: Cristian Fierbinteanu
Synopsis:
What is important? About 15 years ago, Romanian director Bogdan Stamatin asked his closest friends "What is important?". He filmed their answers and presented them to the world as videos on the internet. The project gained visibility, and the number of interviewees grew. The director then resumed the process, after more than 10 years, to see how the answers changed over time.
With some of these recordings, he created a video exhibition in 2025, which, through its approach and production, straddles the seductive boundary between art and anthropology. And now, in 2026, we present "What is important" as a radio drama centred on the same question that haunts us all. But while the real people who can be seen in the online clips or on the screens of the aforementioned exhibition answering the question "What is important?" have clear identities—a face, a name, a personality—the characters in the radio drama are not like that. They appear stripped of their concrete identity they have in Bogdan Stamatin's footage. Like the people filmed, the characters in this radio drama also say what they think is important, but they find themselves in a soundscape that strips them of everything that is particular and distinct.
The intention of the play presented here is to move from the concrete and particular to the universal and timeless, even at the risk of becoming impersonal, lacking in contour, detail, and nuance. With some exceptions, of course, because the temptation of using voices that bring to mind well-known pop culture symbols is great, especially in the age of AI. But all this is done to see if the question and the answers remain valid until the end and beyond the context in which they were formulated. The result? Over 35 minutes of more or less coherent sounds, effects and noises, interspersed with provocative and intrusive voices. The creators hope to offer a sound work that is relevant, at least emotionally, to what is important, and that takes listeners out of their natural listening habits.
