The Visit
DUTCH PREMIERE
In a Moldovan village, a girl tries to navigate her relationship with her grandmother who insists that she should get married and settle down.
Over the course of several days in a village in the Republic of Moldova, a young woman spends time with her grandmother, sharing the rhythms and intimacy of everyday domestic life. Through their conversations and shared routines, the film observes the closeness between them, the quiet tensions of generational expectations, and everyday moments of care. An intimate portrait of rural life in Moldova, seen through the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter.
SCREENINGS
Saturday 7 November 18:30 (New Talents Competition 1)
Director Elena Siretanu will be present for a Q&A
Programme section(s): New Talents Competition
Original title: The Visit | Year: 2024 | Runtime: 11′
Country: Moldova | Language: Romanian | Subtitles: English
Cast: Parascovia Dominte, Pavel Dominte
Director: Elena Siretanu | Production: Elena Siretanu | Screenplay: Elena Siretanu | Cinematography: Elena Siretanu | Editing: Elena Siretanu
FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION)
Peckhamplex Cinema, London, 2024
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Elena Siretanu is a Moldovan documentary photographer and filmmaker whose work explores questions of identity, memory, migration, gender and belonging. Born in Moldova and moving to the UK on her own at sixteen, she began working with photography while studying History at the University of Bristol, where she had access to a darkroom and taught herself to develop film. Her practice is informed by the experience of moving between cultures and places, and by an evolving insider-outsider perspective on Moldova. Her work seeks to develop an intimate and complex visual language – one that foregrounds tenderness, ambiguity and lived experience. She holds an MA in East European Studies from University College London.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
This short film was a way for me to spend time with my grandmother and to make sense of my own relationship with home, and the constant feeling of living between places. My grandmother’s insistence that I should get married comes from her own understanding of care and happiness, while I am still trying to understand what those things mean for myself. Rather than trying to resolve this difference, I wanted to simply spend time with her and observe it. Through small conversations, everyday routines and shared domestic moments, the film captures the closeness between us alongside the tensions that exist within it. The film became a way of looking at the quiet negotiation between inherited ideas of a good life and the possibility of choosing something different, while remaining connected to the people, places and values that shaped me. At its heart, it is a film about becoming your own person without completely leaving behind where you come from.
