Acasă – My home, the awarded debut documentary of Radu Ciorniciuc, opens in local cinemas on September 18.

The documentary tells the story of a family who lived for 18 years in the Văcăreşti Delta, in Bucharest. It follows the family on its move from “a life lived completely in harmony with nature to the challenge-filled existence in the great urban jungle.”

The documentary will be screened in Arad (at the Farad film festival), in Bucharest (at Elvire Popesco Cinema, the Romanian Peasant Museum, Union Cinema, and Europa Cinema), Bistriţa (Dacia Cultural Center), Botoşani (Cine Globe), Cluj-Napoca (Victoria Cinema), Iaşi (Iaşi Cinema), Slobozia (Casa de Cultură) and Timişoara (Hostel Costel).

“The documentary is built around the dramas of one family, and, keeping things in proportion, around one of the modern individual’s biggest dilemmas: go back to nature and a life of freedom but also shortages, or be part of a society offering the opportunity of a comfortable living only to those willing to embrace the pressure and compromise that comes along with the generally accepted definition of civilization,” Ciorniciuc explains.

This year the documentary received numerous awards at international festivals: the World Cinema Documentary special jury award for cinematography at Sundance, the grand prize at DOK.fest Munchen (VIKTOR Main Competition), the special jury prize at la Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the Golden Horn for the Best Director at the Krakow International Film Festival, the Human Rights award at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the Moral Approach award at the MakeDox Documentary Film Festival in Macedonia.

The documentary is also eligible for a nomination at the European Film Awards (EFA).

It premiered in Romania at the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), where it won the Romanian Days Award for Best Feature Film.

The production will also be available online on HBO GO, starting October 15.

(Photo: Mircea Topoleanu)

simona@romania-insider.com