Honking at a herd of cows crossing the road. Wincing at the acrid taste of pickled watermelon. Living in rural Moldova can be an experience of firsts for some foreigners, which is why a former Peace Corps volunteer returned to the country after 20 years to shoot a tongue-in-cheek web series on the highs and lows of country living.
Lost in Moldova, written by scriptwriter John Lewis and produced by an American-Moldovan team of filmmakers, navigates the cultural divides between both nations with lighthearted humour.
“The series is about a guy getting over this idea that Americans are the centre of the universe,” Lewis told The Calvert Journal. “A lot of Americans are clueless about the rest of the world – that’s similar for many people from different countries. But people are people. They’ve got similar problems and similar things you can laugh about.”
Following Diego, a young man joining the Peace Corps to impress his ex-girlfriend, the eight-episode series watches as he arrives in a village in Eastern Europe, instead of receiving the tropical, beach-side posting he’d been planning on.
“I’m hoping that Moldovans will see themselves mirrored in this series, understanding the uniqueness and the great potential of our culture,” the film producer Lucia Lupu says.
The production team launched a crowdfunding campaign this week and plan to shoot their next episodes in November.