Sundance 2020: Romanian documentary gets cinematography award

Acasă, My Home, the debut documentary of Romanian director and journalist Radu Ciorniciuc, received the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography at this year’s Sundance film festival.

Radu Ciorniciuc and Mircea Topoleanu were in charge with the film’s image.

The documentary was the first Romanian production selected in the documentary competition of the festival.

It tells the story of a family that lived for 20 years in Bucharest’s Văcăreşti Delta, until the place received the status of a protected area and became the Văcăreşti Nature Park.

For four years the director followed the trials of the Enache family, from living a life in sync with nature to a city life filled with challenges. As the members of the family make efforts to follow the rules of civilization, while trying to maintain a connection with nature, questions arise about their place in the world and the way the future can look like for them.

The documentary is a Romania-Germany-Finland production, on a script written by Lina Vdovîi and Ciorniciuc, based on the book of the same name, launched in 2017.

Besides his work as a director, Radu Ciorniciuc is a journalist. He is one of the founders of the independent journalism project Casa Jurnalistului. He worked on features for The Guardian, Al-Jazeera, Channel 4 News, and ZDF. He received national and international awards such as Superscrieri (2014), Royal Television Society UK (2014), Amnesty International UK (2014) and Harold Wincott Award for Business Economic and Financial Journalism (2016).

Alexander Nanau’s documentary Colectiv, about the 2015 fire at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, was also screened at Sundance this year, outside of the competition.

(Photo: PR)