DAY 1: Pandemic context.

Global Economic crisis

On the first day of the film festival, we talked with the Swiss students about COVID-19. To be more
specific, we discussed about how we first reacted about the pandemic (scared, hopeless, respecting
the restrictions), how do we feel now about coronavirus, what were the restrictions imposed by the
government in Romania and in Switzerland (the Romanian restrictions were harsher than the ones
from Switzerland: the stores that were closing at 6pm, that we couldn’t go after 8pm outside etc.).
Moreover, all of us expressed our opinions about COVID-19, how we would handle it, if we believe in
it or not, if it was something that we would to different.

DAY 2: Social Issues and Care Economy

On the second day of the film festival, we talked about the social perspective of COVID-19 in
Romania and Switzerland. People were frightened of coronavirus especially due to the news from
the TV. The state should have calmed down the people, but actually, they created a chaos.
Everybody believed that there would not be any more food in the supermarkets, so they rushed to
the nearest supermarket to buy as much they could: paper towel, sugar, flour, etc. The queues were
extremely long, the supermarkets were full of people, nobody cared that it was no distance between
the people, nobody cared about coronavirus and restrictions in that moment, they cared only to
have food. After this, the stores became very empty and everything happened due to media who
encouraged this situation.

Moreover, we talked about how people were treated of Coronavirus. People from Romania tended
to want to self-isolate themselves due to the conditions of the hospitals. In Switzerland people
thought it was safer to go to the hospital, to receive a treatment from a doctor.

DAY 3: Local Economy and Globalization

On the third day of the film festival, we talked about the different approach regarding how the state
helped people in Romania compared to Switzerland. In Switzerland the state implemented plenty of
programmes to help people, not only when they get sick, but even when they felt alone, when they
did not have any will to live, because for the Swiss state every human being was important.
Whereas, in Romania the things are different, the state doesn’t care that much about people’s
wellbeing (an example is when it was mandatory for people to wear masks outside and inside and
some of them couldn’t wear one because of health diseases: asthma for example and they weren’t
believed, so they had to pay enormous fees, because the state thought they lie and are against the
rules)

Moreover, we discussed what we would do different, speaking from a personal point of view, but
also at a national point of view.