Welcome to Udigrudi, storytelling in the heart of Transylvania.
Udigrudi’s history almost ended when we were locked underground in an office, an event that inspired the play Under Quiet Neath. Well, real life happened a little differently. Instead of being locked in with panicky people, we were locked in with hundreds of books. And that is when we made the change from focusing on film to returning our focus to books.
We used to tell people that Udigrudi books and movies started life as a market stall in Aberystwyth Market Hall back in 1999. It actually began even earlier than that.
It started in the 1980s, when a young boy heard actors sing along to Bye Bye, Miss American Pie, and, after having a turn on stage himself, thought, “Why don’t I try one?”
This led to a stage play that was never finished. Later, he was invited to write scripts for friends in high school. By the mid-1990s, he and a few friends had set up their first production company and were creating short films on a Hi8 camcorder. Those films have disappeared, due to a dispute between third parties.
In 1997, after moving to Wales, he began using the words Udigrudi and Chanchada to promote the films he wanted to make on on defunct websites like Geocities (or perhaps it was Spree).
Then, in 1999, a few members of the team began making films and selling greeting cards at the market stall under the name “Udigrudi Books and Movies.”
In 2013, they created a limited company, Ptara Ltd, in order to produce their first feature film. Another business, Udigrudi Ltd, was created for other kinds of ventures. These companies closed in 2019. But the trademarks were owned by us and not the corporation, so the Udigrudi name lives on in a new venture.
After Brexiting, Udigrudi has a new base in Transylvania. At first, it was one author. But, in Romania, an independent author can only have two ISBNs per year, which was limiting for our output. Some of the works on this page are published through Smashwords and have Smashwords issued ISBNs, but like Geocities and Spree, we do not know how long that site will last.
So, Editura Udigrudi was founded to continue Udigrudi Books and Movies’ mission of telling stories. With an Editura, we can publish more than two books a year, and we can reach readers through more channels, even if something happens to our primary distributor.
As language teachers, you will notice that many of our stories end with a question or more. What brings you to Udigrudi today?