Episode 09: Acasa, My Home with Radu Ciorniciuc

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Radu Ciorniciuc about his award-winning feature-length documentary, ACASA MY HOME (2020).

The film is set in the wilderness of the Bucharest Delta, an abandoned water reservoir just outside the bustling metropolis. Here we meet the Enache family consisting of nine children and their parents living in perfect harmony with nature: sleeping in a hut on the lakeshore, catching fish barehanded, and following the rhythm of the seasons. Their life changes dramatically when they are forced to leave the area and move into the city so the city can transform the Delta into a public national park.

With their roots in the wilderness, the nine children and their parents struggle to find a way to conform to modern civilization. With an empathetic and cinematic eye, filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc offers a compelling tale of an impoverished family living on the fringes of society in Romania, fighting for acceptance and their version of freedom.

ACASA MY HOME premiered at Sundance, winning the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography. It then went on the screen across Europe at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, Vilnius International Film Festival in Lithuania, DOK Fest Munich, where it was awarded the VIKTOR in the Main Competition, and Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, where it took home the special jury award. It was recently screened at the Krakow International Film Festival, where it was awarded the GOLDEN HORN for Best Director and Best Film. The next screening will be at DocEdge in New Zealand.

The film is an impressive debut and essential viewing for filmmakers that lean into cinema verite style. The story is strong, and the cinematography powerful, but what is equally remarkable is the social impact campaign that surrounds the film. We discuss the details of this and the inspiration behind the movie in the following conversation moderated by Romanian filmmaker Cristina Hanes.

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

RADU CIORNICIUC – CO-WRITER / DIRECTOR / PRODUCER/ CINEMATOGRAPHER 

In 2012, Radu co-founded the first independent media organization in Romania - Casa Jurnalistului (http://casajurnalistului.ro/eng/), a community of reporters specialized in in-depth, long-form, and multimedia reporting. Since then, he has worked as a long-form writer and undercover investigative reporter. His research focuses on human rights, animal welfare, and environmental issues globally. 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. In addition, his journalistic work was acknowledged by the Royal Television Society UK (2014), Amnesty International UK (2014), Harold Wincott Awards for Business, Economic and Financial Journalism (2016), and other international and national prestigious institutions.