email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION Romania

Iulia Stoian starts searching for The Invisibles

by 

- The documentary feature about an undocumented family will be shot over the next 12 months

Iulia Stoian starts searching for The Invisibles
Director Iulia Stoian

In March, the One World Romania documentary film festival organised Civil Society Pitch, a workshop uniting human-rights NGOs and filmmakers in order to bring relevant human-rights stories to the big screen. The winner of the first edition, Iulia Stoian's The Invisibles, started production in the first few days of December.

According to statistics from 2015, Romania has the highest number of undocumented persons in Europe, approximately 160,000 Romanians having no identity card. Thousands don't even have a birth certificate, which makes them practically invisible to the authorities. With no access to education, the health system or legal work, they are the true pariahs of society. The Invisibles will follow Ionela Ciobanu, a woman with no papers from the county of Bacău, and her efforts to contact the authorities and obtain the necessary papers for her daughter, Ilaria, so that the child won't suffer because of the illiteracy, discrimination and social exclusion that a lack of legal documents entails.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Stoian tells Cineuropa that the process may take one year. “After I met Ionela, I felt that I wanted to follow her in this bureaucratic and emotional endeavour she has started with her daughter, Ilaria.” The witnesses of this endeavour will be other members of the family, but also Ionela's friends and neighbours. “Through their stories as supporting characters, I want to show that important moments in life – such as being born, one’s first day of school, getting a legal job, gaining access to medical services and even burial formalities – can become insurmountable obstacles for those who do not have legal proof of their identity,” Stoian says.

For now, the director (who is also the DoP) is the sole producer of the project, which received €4,000 from the Civil Society Pitch. Stoian will use the money to start production and also to edit a trailer to be shown at the next edition of One World Romania, which may attract new producers. The domestic release is expected for 2018.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy