Wheelchair accessible, SDH captioning, English subtitling
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival is proud to present Acasa, My Home (Acasâ) as part of its inaugural edition in 2022. A feature debut by Romanian investigative journalist and activist Radu Ciorniciuc, it is a poignant and significant work, which has been featured in the line-ups of Sundance Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and IDFA (Amsterdam) and won the award for Best Documentary Film at Trieste Film Festival.
Acasâ is a documentary telling about the Enache family’s struggle to adapt to urban life after being forcibly moved from their home in the rural part of the Bucharest Delta. Kids that used to spend their days in nature now have to go to school instead of swimming in the lake, and swap their fishing rods for mobile phones. Their identity has been questioned and transformed, along with their sense of freedom and family ties. Ciorniciuc presents a moving, lyrical portrait of the Enache family’s plight against the Romanian state, its bureaucratic structures, and the oppression, both social and institutional, that they often face.
Content notes: Depictions of police violence, racism and oppression, violence towards an animal and references to abortion, drug use and homelessness.
Access notes: Bright images.
Curated by Andrew Currie
Director’s Statement
The harmonious bond with nature and the difficulties of the Enache’s lifestyle dictated the social dynamics inside the family. The bond between the members was not only forged by love, but also by their will to stay alive. Only by working and being together could the family survive in their harsh environment. This was their shield against the dangers coming from inside and outside the Delta. But independence is a core value of how our society sees the social integration process. Very soon after moving [to] the city, the family members learned that the opportunities of having a comfortable life can only be reached by becoming independent. Living or working together was not an option anymore, especially for the family’s youngsters. They had [fewer] difficulties than their parents to adapt to the new reality and were more willing to succeed as integrated citizens. The film is built around one family’s drama, [focusing on] one of modern man’s biggest dilemmas: [should one] go back to nature, where life is free, but harsh without the benefits of civilization? Or be part of a society that offers opportunities of a comfortable life, but only to those who are willing to embrace the pressures that come with comfort?
Director’s biography
In 2012, Radu co-founded the first independent media organisation in Romania - Casa Jurnalistului, a community of reporters specialized in in-depth, long-form and multimedia reporting. Since then, he has been working as a long-form writer and undercover investigative reporter. His research projects are focused on human rights, animal welfare and environmental issues across the globe. His investigative and reporting work was published on most of the major international media organizations in the world - Channel 4 News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, etc. - and received national and international awards. It was acknowledged by Royal Television Society UK (2014), Amnesty International UK (2014), Harold Wincott Awards for Business, Economic and Financial Journalism (2016), and more.