Completed Archives - Manifest Film

SOMETHING FAMILIAR

_g — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 13:33:00 +0000

Synopsis: While helping a woman search for her birth mother, a filmmaker is drawn into her own family history, uncovering a dark cloud that has long hung over its women. Through filmmaking as both inquiry and a gesture of care, she explores whether self-authorship can rewrite inherited family narratives. .

Director: Rachel Taparjan Screenwriter: Rachel Taparjan Cinematographer: Andrei Oană Editor: Alice Powel Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin Genre: Feature Length Documentary Status: World Premier in International Competition at CPH:DOX 2026

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THE LIVING ONES

_g — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 10:39:58 +0000

Synopsis
COSTI has suffered serious injuries; DAN was the one holding their fellow comrade, Dragoș, in his arms as he died, killed on duty; MATEI has survived severe head trauma, BIANCA is Dragoș’s widow. All four talk about their injuries and, for the first time, come to grips with their profound consequences on their souls and minds alike. Built like an intertwining puzzle of personal accounts and personal records from the time of their service in Afghanistan, the film offers them the opportunity and much-needed space for introspection, like a confession or a therapy session.

Director: Anca Hirte
Screenwriter: Anca Hirte
Cinematographer: Andrei Oană, Ana Lefaux
Editor: Ligia Popescu, Delia Oniga
Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin
Music: Matthieu Gasnier
Sound Design: Marius Leftărache
Genre: feature length documentary
Status: Completed

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_g — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:00:34 +0000

Synopsis: A journalist estranged from her violent father discovers that he’s become a victim of work exploitation. When she agrees to help him expose the injustice, it reopens the wounds of their past.

Directors: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
Screenwriters: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
Cinematographers: Radu Ciorniciuc, Lina Vdovîi
Editors: Radu Ciorniciuc, Ciprian Cimpoi, Andrei Gorgan
Producer: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Co-producers: Ümit Uludağ, Martin Roelly and Erik Winker from CORSO Film Olivia Sophie van Leeuwen and Ruby Deelen from 100% Hanka Kastelicová from HBO
Genre: Feature length documentary
Status: World premiere Toronto International Film Festival 2024

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_g — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:32:05 +0000

Synopsis: In the summer of 1989, thousands of people from various nations and beliefs gathered in North Korea for a grand student festival that championed peace, friendship, and anti-imperialism. Entangled in the geopolitical tensions of the Cold War, the festival, over its 42-year history, became a cultural battleground where youth from the West, socialist states, and developing countries converged. At the same time, it served as a rare opportunity to experience diverse cultures in a world divided by borders and ideologies- a common space where young people debated humanity’s future. Though primarily political, addressing issues like nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, women’s and students’ rights, social justice, and above all, peace, the festival also took place at a pivotal moment in history. Behind the celebration, a crucial shift was on the horizon, signalling the end of an era.

Director: Andra MacMasters
Screenwriter: Andra MacMasters
Cinematographer: Emilian Urse
Editor: Andrei Gorgan
Producer: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Co-producer: Andra MacMasters, KO Duhyun
Sound Designer: Matei Vasilache
Cast: Pompilius Onofrei, SONG Ji-Young
Production companies: Manifest Film, Conset, Keumyoil Film
Genre: Feature Length Documentary
Status: World premiere International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2024

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TOOTH AND NAIL

_g — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:36:19 +0000

Synopsis: In this tragi-comedy documentary, two filmmakers follow a businessman turned eco-activist as he exposes Romania’s timber mafia on Facebook Live. The “online show” goes well until the three get beaten up badly by 12 angry and armed foresters. What to do now?

Director: Mihai Gavril Dragolea, Radu Mocanu
Screenwriter: Mihai Gavril Dragolea, Radu Mocanu
Cinematographer: Mihai Gavril Dragolea, Radu Mocanu
Editor: Andrei Gorgan
Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin
Co-producers: Rok Biček
Genre: Feature length documentary
Status: World Premiere in the Interational Competition at Krakow Film Festival 2025

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IMAGINARY YOUTH

_g — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:25:49 +0000

Synopsis
Three teens – a rapper, an environmental activist, and a teen actress – take the decision to leave their families and their country behind and emigrate after high school, for a better shot at fulfilling their dreams. Will they go through with their plan?

Director’s Notes
Imaginary Youth is teen reality in a nutshell. Our focus throughout the movie is how teens navigate through life, before, during and after Covid. The big topics take on school and societal pressure to achieve, own expectations and fears of failure, going from mental health/teen anxiety, to family issues, to drug use or the impact and consequences of Covid on teenagers. I brought together three very different adolescents at the age of their first big decisions. I followed them closely as they were gradually discovering themselves, sharing this feeling of (in)finite possibilities inherent to their age. At the same time, they all start to realize how their home country is rendering dreaming difficult and they start wishing of being “elsewhere”. Dealing with teen life might seem carefree and easy going, because they are entertaining or we feel they want to be entertained. But, actually, stopping for a while inside their lives, giving them a moment or two to express themselves in their most intimate ways, we find out that our adolescents – and many more like them – find themselves to be “out of place”. And that’s where the stakes of Imaginary Youth are high.

“When I started working on Imaginary Youth, it never occurred to me that my life and the lives of the teenagers I was following so closely are going to almost merge. An observational is never an easy story, but ours was facing a pandemic in the middle of it. A crisis that changed the course of all our lives, and that transformed the story into something we weren’t expecting. We were there for each other throughout this process, we stuck together, and that’s one of the things that makes me proud, and that adds weight to how and why documentaries really matter. We faced so many uncertainties – as director, as characters, as people dealing with real life – but the trust we luckily managed to build pushed those realities further, in front of the public, standing witness for almost five years of not so imaginary life of youth.”

Director: Ruxandra Gubernat
Screenwriter: Ruxandra Gubernat, Henry Rammelt, Irina Dobriță
Cinematographer: Andrei Dudea
Editor: Robert Bitay
Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin
Co-producers: Avanpost Media, Patrupetrei, Ruxandra Gubernat – Rammelt PFA
With: Ștefania Gârțu, Habet Ionuț, Una Toma
Genre: Documentary
Duration: 84 minutes
Release in cinemas: 20 September 2024

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I HEREBY DECLARE, STATE AND AFFIRM

_g — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 14:00:20 +0000

Synopsis
After a racist attack on a Roma woman at a bus station, a TV crew films witnesses’ reactions. Shot in a single take and drawn from real testimonies, the film blends fact and fiction to expose ongoing indifference and everyday racism.

Director: Vlad Petri
Screenwriter: Vlad Petri
Cinematographer: George Chiper-Lillemark
Editor: Tomás Baltazar
Sound Design: Yohann Bernard
Cast: Cătălina Bălălău,Maria Militaru, Cristi Martin, Adriana Butoi, Marina Crina Mureșanu, George Chiper-Lillemark
Voices: Ilinca Hărnuț, Andrei Tănăsescu, Oana Ghera
Producers: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin
Co-producers: Valentin Leblanc (Black Boat Pictures), Liliana Lasprilla (Sabina Films)
Genre: Short fiction
Status: Completed

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FREE DACIANS

_g — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 22:27:06 +0000

Synopsis: The inhabitants of a Dacian village, a group with mystical beliefs, the administrator of the UNESCO site Sarmisegetuza Regia and the participants in the Congresses of Dacology – all share a common passion for Dacians, but they share their different perspectives on a historical episode that is becoming more popular in Romania.

Director: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Andrei Gorgan
Screenwriter: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Andrei Gorgan
Cinematographer: Laurentiu Raducanu, Andrei Gorgan
Editor: Andrei Gorgan
Status: Released

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A MERE BREATH

_g — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 22:17:44 +0000

Synopsis: A MERE BREATH explores the profound contradictory nature of family love. Both a journey of initiation and a theological parable, the film follows 7 years in the life of Sicrea family in Romania, capturing, in painterly tableaux of sheer poetry, the trials and tribulations of Dobrin, his wife Lia and their 3 children. Dobrin is waiting for a miracle to happen, to enable his youngest daughter to get up from her wheelchair and walk. As we see his children becoming adults, we witness how his close connection to God deeply impacts the family relationships. The film reveals the absurdity and beauty, the frailty and power of the human being, caught between love and faith, earth and heaven.

Director: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Screenwriter: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Cinematographer: Marius Apopei, Barbu Balasoiu
Editor: Andrei Gorgan, Alexander Nanau (edit consultant)
Status: released

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TIMEBOX

_g — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 22:09:57 +0000

Synopsis: Professor Ioan-Matei Agapi, an 80-year-old photographer and cameraman from Iasi, Romania, owns a unique collection of 16mm films and photographs documenting almost fifty years of the city’s history. His daughter, also a filmmaker, has decided to make a film about her father’s archives. In the unconventional surroundings of his old apartment, he reminisces about the past until one day, Ioan is informed that he must leave or be evicted from the apartment where he has spent the past 40 years. Ioan’s years of work suddenly transform into a huge burden, and the film unexpectedly changes into drama in which conflicts with city officials reveal old and hidden conflicts within the family.

Director: Nora Agapi
Screenwriter: Nora Agapi, Maxim Cârlan
Cinematographer: Nora Agapi
Editor: Rita Bakacs
Status: released

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