Given the fact that Moldova has a movie-production studio but has no relevant cinematography, the government should adopt a strategy focused on the development of this domain. At the same time, authorities should decide whether they should go on financing a studio that produces films of low artistic quality. This statement was made by a group of filmmakers within a press conference held on Friday in connection with staff reshuffling at the “Moldova-Film”, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the film director Valeriu Jereghi, the artistic director of the “Prim-Plan Studio”, an important step towards the improvement of the sphere is the dismissal of the “Moldova-Film” director, Ion Siman, on February 20. “Under Siman “Moldova-Film” transformed into some kind of a separatist state, ignoring the rules and elementary norms of film-making, left without professionals and oriented against filmmakers”, Valeriu Jereghi said. According to him, “non-professionals like Siman” and other members of the studio’s leadership discredited Moldova and its citizens by producing movies beneath criticism, using the money of the taxpayers, without the agreement of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT), without proper screenplays or legal estimate of expenses. „Movies marked “Moldova-Film”, were copied and sold at the ridiculous prices of 100 to 200 dollars, while the video-tapes with Moldovan films are sold in the west for 40 dollars each. There was no state committee to estimate the cost of the movies”, the director added. Jereghi asserts that a serious audit should be implemented in order to verify the legality of the sales as well as the lease of the studio’s halls. Mihai Poiata stated that SA “Moldova-Film” is a mystification created by the ministry, which has destroyed the Department of Cinematography. “Suddenly the ministry found itself with no lever to control the JSC, although all the stocks belong to the state”, the quoted source pointed out. “The Law on Cinematography is totally unconstitutional, excluding the private studios from the film-financing process, “Moldova-Film” being the sole institution to benefit from all public resources. At the same time, the Artistic Council of MCT is being ignored by the studio’s leadership, which does not present the movies produced and the reports on the expenses”, Poiata added. He asserts that in 2007 “Moldova-Film” received 6.5 million lei from the state budget, of which only one million and something was spent on film-making and the rest - for repairs of rooms and equipment procurement. However, since the professional staff was turned off, there’s nobody to work with this equipment. Filmmakers say that the state should either liquidate or privatize the studio. “The studio should provide services for foreign filmmakers and accumulate money for local productions. It should employ professionals and get rid of the unprofessional leadership”. Filmmakers plead for a professional director for Moldova-Film, elected through competition, who would implement concrete plans for improving the movie-making in Moldova, and would cooperate with the Union of Filmmakers. A declaration recently sent to Info-Prim Neo by the Moldova-Film staff says that in the recent years the studio succeeded in producing a range of short-reel feature and documentary films. Moreover, a full-length movie was recently produced by the studio.