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He’s a moody patriarch, part anarchist and part autocrat, shielding his family from the power of the state with his own sometimes tyrannical authority. When he’s confronted by social workers, the police and other officials, he’s not always diplomatic. “These are my children, and I can kill them if I want” might not be the best thing to say to child welfare officers. Guess who embraces and adopts the charms of the modern world the fastest? Illiterate and isolated until then, the Enache kids prove to be quick studies. And with his unprecedented, trust-based access to the family for nearly four years, Ciorniciuc captures their transition with such devoted precision.
There are blissful haircuts, good old-fashioned school work and much smartphone scrolling in the lives of the Enache kids now; all of which Ciorniciuc films with a keen yet unobtrusive eye while the children replace their parents as key subjects on the foreground. The home in “Acasa, My Home” is a wild, marshy expanse on the outskirts of Bucharest, an abandoned reservoir populated mainly by birds, fish and insects. At the beginning of this documentary, directed by Radu Ciorniciuc, the only human residents are Gica Enache, his wife, Niculina, and their nine children. Surrounded by chickens, hogs, pigeons and dogs, they live in proud, occasionally belligerent defiance of “civilization,” a word Gica utters with disdain.
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Tomris LafflyTomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle , she regularly contributes toRogerEbert.com, Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets. A rural Romanian couple and their nine children must learn to live in the big city.
While those of us equipped with everyday necessities might be inclined to judge the family’s treatment of the wildlife around them, the clan’s actions and existence make sense within the bounds of the reality Ciorniciuc rigorously portrays with his elegant, eye-level camera. And for a brief while, the Enache patriarch receives an artificial sort of respect from them as the land’s former groundskeeper. Somewhere amid the press circus, even Prince Charles makes a short appearance to promote the project that apparently carries some international significance. But the tables turn when social services relocate the family into a crammed home where they’d have to adjust to the rules of a regular community; something Gica had decided to avoid like the plague a long time ago.
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There is a nobility to Niculina and Gica as they try to resist the power of a state convinced of its own benevolence. It’s not as simple as taking the side of individualism against government, or for that matter of being in favor of parks, schools and a decent social order. A family’s dispossession to make way for a nature park is the subject of this Romanian documentary.
If it weren’t for the high-rise buildings within eyeshot, you could swear that the opening sequence of the acutely compassionate and probing “Acasa, My Home” was filmed in deep wilderness. During that initial scene, our gaze floats over the sun-dappled surface of a muddy marsh, following a teenaged boy as he swims in murky waters that somehow seem idyllic and catches fish with his bare hands, away from the metropolitan area he seems to be right outside of. Soon enough, he is joined by a number of young boys, whose cheery sounds we hear in a cacophony before their faces appear on camera and watch the older brother dexterously catch a wild water bird. When the poor terrified winged creature manages to escape and run for dear life, the boys go straight back to their carefree afternoon, rolling around in mud, giggling away and wresting amid tall reeds. It had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020. Zeitgeist Films, Kino Lorber took the North American international distribution rights.
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In a way, “Acasa, My Home” is a real-world “Leave No Trace,” Debra Granik’s recent American drama about an off-the-grid father and daughter rejecting the conformities of a traditional society. Like in that film, Ciorniciuc opens a non-didactic and non-judgmental window for audiences into an alternative world where parents both nurture their babies within the rules of nature and also deprive them of their vital rights, like safety and education. The kids all seem well-adjusted to the ins and outs of their pastoral way of life however—when the concerned authorities and child services make an appearance, there is routine talk amongst them about hiding in their usual spots. The children run through the reeds, catch fish with their bare hands, wrestle with swans and perform household chores. The scene isn’t entirely pastoral, though, and Gica isn’t exactly Henry David Thoreau.
Filmed over four years, “Acasa” tells the complicated, bittersweet story of Gica’s defeat. When the Romanian government designates the area as a protected nature park — reportedly the largest in a major European city — the Enaches are forced out. They dismantle their house, a sprawling structure made of blankets and plastic sheeting draped over a makeshift wooden frame, and move into an apartment. The children, provided with haircuts, shoes and new clothes, attend school regularly for the first time. The oldest son, Vali, finds a girlfriend and asserts a measure of independence from his father. In 2012, Radu co-founded the first independent media organisation in Romania—Casa Jurnalistului—a community of reporters specialized in in-depth, long-form and multimedia reporting.
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Since then, he has been working as a long-form writer and undercover investigative reporter. His researches are focused on human rights, animal welfare and environmental issues across the globe. 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.
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When this area is transformed into a public national park, they are forced to leave behind their unconventional life and move to the city, where fishing rods are replaced by smartphones and idle afternoons are now spent in classrooms. As the family struggles to conform to modern civilization and maintain their connection to each other and themselves, they each begin to question their place in the world and what their future might be. With their roots in the wilderness, the nine children and their parents struggle to find a way to keep their family united in the concrete jungle. With an empathetic and cinematic eye, filmmaker Radu Ciorniciuc offers viewers, in his feature debut, a compelling tale of an impoverished family living on the fringes of society in Romania, fighting for acceptance and their own version of freedom.
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