BLOG · Review: “On Our Own”

Written by Linda Krnáčová
Master Film and Photographic Studies at Leiden University

On Our Own (2026), directed by Tudor Christian Jurgiu, focuses on the everyday struggles of 14-year-old Flavia living alone in a small Romanian town after her parents moved abroad for work. Consequently, together with her boyfriend Luca and their friends, they are confronted with abandonment and lack of love from their relatives, whilst being just regular kids. They go to school, attend parties and have their first kisses, but at the same time they’re forced to grow up too quickly. They have to take care of themselves and, as described in the title of the film, they have to live “on their own”. The film follows the love story between Flavia and Luca, who are compelled to be the most responsible of the group, as the world starts to fall apart around them. The film foregoes linear storytelling in favour of an experiential one to immerse the audience in Flavia and Luca’s lives and their everyday realities. And so, we see how they navigate difficult situations, such as the death of a relative and funeral preparations, parental abandonment and divorce, and how this ultimately brings them closer together. Unexpectedly, their main strategy for handling these situations is laughter, as they use irony as a survival strategy and to protect themselves. At the end of the day, they are just kids, they play, they mess around, they try to have fun, and once they are confronted with something unfamiliar, their only solution is to laugh it off. On Our Own is a beautiful film, which gives a voice to the unheard and the invisible. It shows a side of the world that is both playful and vulnerable, a world that adults often forget about.