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You can watch the previous episodes, made during prior editions of Animation Worksheep, at the links below:
Before the creation of the world, there were only the Solomonar and Tustra, the sky and the earth. They loved each other dearly, though they could only be together for a moment. And in that moment, the Universe and all life on Earth was created.
Their most beloved children were the Călușari. The Călușari joined the Solomonar in the light, and Tustra lost them for all eternity. To take revenge, Tustra cursed the Călușari so that all their children and their dead would be hers forever.
Tustra and the Solomonar would end up confronting each other and using up all their magic to mend their mistakes.
Tustra and the Solomonar’s offspring, the Călușari are magical beings who protect humankind from evil. In the beginning, they were divided in two brigades, the Călușari Faeries and the Dancing Călușari.
The Călușari Faeries were led by Arada, the queen of the Faeries, the first born and most powerful of the Călușari. She was always accompanied by her brigade of Călușari Faeries, whose song had powers beyond limit.They could raise the dead but only by sacrificing themselves and descending into darkness for ever.
The Dancing Călușari are led by Baba Novac, Arada’s lover. The Călușari can crack the earth with their dance, and are accompanied in battle by lynxes.
Novac and Arada’s tragedy would lead to the corruption of the Călușari Faeries and the birth of the iele. After a cataclysmic fight between the two sides, the Dancing Călușari would emerge victorious with the help of the Solomonar and Tustra. They would then retreat into the mountains for milenia, until humankind would need to summon them back to fight.
The iele are the Călușar Faeries corrupted by darkness, born out of Arada’s sacrifice, in order to resurrect Baba Novac. On Tustra’s orders, they try to capture Luana and bring her back to Tustra, to fulfill the covenant. Although the bodies of the iele are under Tustra’s control, a fragment of the old Călușar Faeries still lives within each and everyone of them, locked in an endless and hopeless battle with the darkness.
The iele continue to have the same powers as the Călușar Faeries. However, they now use these powers to destroy and create chaos. They can bring people back from the dead as ghouls, and control them from a distance. Several iele can merge to form a monster that can crack the earth half and destroy everything around them.
After the iele descend upon the land, the remaining Călușari try to stop them, but to no avail. Tustra and the Solomonar must sacrifice their magic in order to defeat them and imprison them under the earth for all eternity.
There is only one being who can release the iele from the earth’s bowels, Vâlva, the Mole Witch. Once freed, they will create an earthquake that will remain infamous throughout history. And their power to raise the dead will be used to create and army of ghouls, under the command of the Vâlva.
Arada was the leader of the Călușar Faeries and the strongest of the Călușari. In her endless love for Baba Novac and their daughter Luana, she sacrificed herself, together with her entire band of Călușar Faeries to resurrect him through their song. This was the moment the iele were born and the beginning of Arada’s suffering.
Henceforth her body is controlled by Tustra, who wants to bring Luana in the underworld. But a fragment of the old Arada is still present inside the most powerful of the iele, looking on helplessly at the destruction wrought by Tustra’s darkness.
Baba Novac is the chieftain of the Dancing Călușari, Arada’s lover, and Luana’s father. To save his daughter from the ancestral covenant between the Solomonar and Tustra, he sacrifices himself to Tustra, to take Luana’s place.
Resurrected by Arada, who pays the price and becomes the first of the iele, Novac is the only Călușari who has come back from the dead and has maintained his identity and his free will. His death and resurrection have cost him his sight, however. But through his powerful connection with Luana, who has become the Great Bird, he can see everything through her eyes.
Together, Novac and Luana are a force to be reckoned with, spurred on by their desire to save Arada and their former brothers and sisters from the clutches of darkness.
Luana is Arada’s and Baba Novac’s child. To escape Tustra’s curse, when she is born, Luana becomes a bird, in order to escape Tustra and the iele who wish to capture her. Thus, she becomes The Great Bird.
The Great Bird is destined to keep an eye on earth and humans. She is the defender of good. Because she has a powerful connection to her father, Baba Novac, he can see everything through her eyes.
She is tasked with summoning the Călușari to fight when humanity needs them
On the night of August 20th, 1968, USSR forces invade Czechoslovakia, an attempt to stop the liberalizing and democratising tendencies in the country. Nicolae Ceaușescu, the president of the Social Republic of Romania, speaks out against the invasion. Consequently, Romania becomes the new target of the Red Army. The Soviet Union invades Romania. In 1977, they are set to declare Romania a Union Republic.
To mark the occasion, Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the USSR, together with the entirety of the Red Army, parade their forces in front the House of the People, a decision which will prove fatal to them. The iele, under the control of the Ceaușescu couple emerge from the underground and, through their dance, destroy the Red Army in its entirety. With the help of the iele, the Ceaușescus bring back the defeated army as ghouls, and continue their plan to conquer the world.
Vâlva, the Mole-Witch is the only being capable of freeing and controlling the iele who had been imprisoned by Tustra and Solomonar. Vâlva has been living for years disguised as a human, under the identity of Elena Ceaușescu, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s wife.
In order to free the iele from their prison, she must forgo her human face and take on the appearance of a giant, monstrous mole forever.
In 1968, when she finds out the USSR plans to invade Romania, Vâlva begins her journey towards the prison of the iele. To get there, she has to travel nine years through the tunnels underneath the House of the People, during which time she completely transforms from Elena Ceaușescu to Vâlva.
In 1977, the iele, led by Vâlva, emerge from their subterranean prison and, with their dance, trigger the Earthquake of ‘77, splitting the earth in half from Bucharest to Moscow, and swallowing the entire Red Army under the rubble.
The ghouls are the dead brought back to life by the iele after the Earthquake of ‘77. Most of them are former Red Army soldiers, now under the iele’s control, but a few of them are civilians caught in the middle of the conflict between the iele and the Red Army. The army of ghouls plays a pivotal role in the Ceaușescus’ plan to conquer the world.
Ghouls do not have a will of their own, rather they are controlled telepathically by the iele who created them. They become vulnerable once this connection is severed.
Caught in the middle of this conflict of mythical proportion, a few, brave, ordinary people take up arms and form a guerilla opposition against the seemingly unbeatable army of the Ceaușescus. The resistance is led by Onofrei, a former engineer who uses his technical knowledge to oppose the supernatural forces. With the help of radio waves, he can disrupt the links between iele and ghouls, confusing the ghouls and making them vulnerable.
But the members of the Resistance do not fight alone. They are helped by Novac and his Călușari. Onofrei calls them to join him in battle, using the same radio waves, this time as a beacon.
Produced during the 13th, 14th and 15th editions of Animation Worksheep
Adèle Coulloudon
Alex Minciună
Alina Cîrciumaru
Amalia Tirica
Ana Dobrescu
Ana-Maria Țăranu
Ana Zmeu
Angela Răduță
Andreea Barbu
Andrei Fiuciuc
Andrei Iancu
Andrei Păun
Carmen Marinescu
Ciprian Nechita
Corina Gligor
Cristina-Elena Călin
Cosmin Tița
Dan Panaitescu
Diana Alice Costache
Diana-Erika Ursu-Vdovicenco
Eduard Gheorghe
Elena-Gabriela Manea
Elena Martin
Flavia Sofia Matei
Francisc-Traian Apostu
Geo Dibu
Ioan Vulcan
Ioana Pătrașcu
Ion Aramă
Laura Comănescu
Laura Pop
Liana Chiriță
Luiz Stockler
Maria Simina Dimancea
Maria Ioana Lupu
Mary Nicola
Maria Scutaru
Matei Băcanu
Natalia Lisande
Nicoleta Miron
Pisica Pătrată
Radu Tudor Năstase
Radu C Pop
Radu Popovici
Raluca Sîrbu
Roxana Bloju
Roxana Velea
Ruxandra Băltățescu
Ruxandra Pană
Silviu „Dez” Matei
Ștefana Inczeffi Duma
Vera Dănciulescu
Vlad Ilicevici
Music by: Orkid
Organised by: Asociația Estenest
Co-financed by: AFCN, CNC
In collaboration with: UNATC, CINETic
Partners: TVPaint Developpement, Instituto Cervantes, Augmented Space Agency
