Georgiana Halmac turns 15 this winter. She lives with her six brothers and sisters in a social housing condo on the outskirts of Bacau, Romania. Their mother Liliana was forced to leave her family behind to go to Turin, Italy, to earn money. She won’t be back before summer. During their mother’s absence, Georgiana has been catapulted into the role of head of the family, responsible for her siblings. Her adolescence is cut brutally short.
Caught between puberty and responsibility, Georgiana moves ahead, improvising as she goes. Phone conversations with her mom are her only guidelines. Intimate scenes from the daily life of the seven siblings show us – in an uncensored, fly-on-the-wall style – how real events are experienced and interpreted with great imagination by the children.
You can’t help being amazed by their ingenuity, while also realizing how precarious their daily equilibrium is.
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Winner Best International Feature Documentary - Hot Docs Canada ; Winner Best Long Documentary - Karlovy Vary International Film festival ; Winner Honorary Mention - Vision du Réel Switzerland ; Winner Balkan Best Newcomer - Dokufest Kosovo ; Winner Best International Documentary - Bergen International Film Festival ; Winner Best Romanian Documentary - Astra Film Festival ; Winner Environmental Award - Reykjavik International Film Festival ; Winner Best International Documentary - Antenna Documentary Film Festival ; Winner Best Documentary - Budapest International Documentary Festival ; Winner Best International Film - Valdivia International Film Festival ; Winner Special Mention - Batumi International Art-House Film Festival ; Winner Best International Feature Documentary - Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival ; Moscow International Film Festival ; Lemesos International Documentary Film Festival ; IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam Summer ; DMZ International Korean Filmfestival ; Calgary Filmfestival ; Camden International Film Festival ; Vancouver International Filmfestival ; BFI London Film Festival ; Mostra São Paolo ; Ânûû-rû Âboro – Festival International du Cinéma des Peuples ; Zagreb Film Festival ; Film Fest Ghent ; Inconvenient Film Litauen/Vilnius ; Guth Gafa International Documentary Film Festival ; Bozeman Doc Series ; Cork Film Festival ; International Film Festival Listapad ; ZINEBI International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Bilbao ; Jerusalem Anthropological Film Festival ; Le mois du film documentaire ; Enfances dans le monde – Festival de films documentaires à Paris ; IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam ; Regent Park Film Festival ; Malatya International Film Festival ; Torino Film Festival ; Singapore International Film Festival ; Porto/Post/Doc Film & Media Festival ; International Film Festival IFF This Human World ; Mirrors Of Romania Laak-NL ; DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival ; ReFrame Festival ; Göteborg International Film Festival ; Punto Vista International Documentary Festival of Navarra ; Tempo Stockholm ; IBAFF Spain ; Salem FF ; Bergamo Filmmeeting ; BUFF Malmo ; Assen Cinema ; One World Romania + Tour ; Women Director Huesca ; Gdansk ; Festival Cinéma D’Alès ; Filmhuis Zevenaar ; AMDOCS ; Sebastopol Documentary Film Festivals ; Annapolis FF ; Dochouse London ; Wisconsin FF ; Dortmund IFF ; Block Cinema Chicago ; Belfast FF; Flying Broom Women FF Istanbul ; Eurorama ; DocEdge New Zealand ; EDOC ; Lilla Festivalen ; CineMigrante ; CNEX ; Flimmer Norrköping ; CYINDEP Zypern ; Move It Dresden ; Fieri Fieri ; Művészetek Völgye