BERLIN – This film explores the impact of migration from an unusual perspective, of those left behind in the country of origin: often children and young people, with one or both parents abroad for work, they grow up somewhat alone or cared for by elderly relatives. Tudor Cristian Jurgiu's Romanian-Italian co-production, De capul nostru (On Our Own), presented at the Berlinale Forum, was inspired by the many Romanian children whose parents have left the country. These stories "are everywhere in Romania," as Jurgiu puts it. He worked primarily with first-time performers from acting schools. "There are approximately 150,000 children in the country whose parents are working abroad, a phenomenon that generates profound emotional trauma and fragile family relationships. This was the starting point for my interest in this story."
De capul nostru, produced by Romania's Libra Films with Italy's Indyca, is a touching coming-of-age story about a generation forced to deal with the absence of parents. For some of the young people who grow up this way, family is no longer the centre of their world, or ceases to be so. It is replaced by community: friends, neighbours, and relatives, from the close to the distant. No longer a family in the traditional sense, it becomes something else, something freer, more inclusive, which provides a new perspective on the concept of community, one that is broader and not based solely on family. This experience, of course, does not elicit the same reaction in everyone: while absence can make some emotionally closed, hesitant, or reluctant to believe in any kind of relationship, for other young people it becomes a catalyst for early maturation which, nevertheless, makes them strong and independent.
In addition to Romania, principally Bucharest, the film also shot in Italy, with six days of filming in Emilia-Romagna, in locations including: Parma, Cesena, Forlì, and Bologna, the Alto Savio, the Casentinesi Forests, Lake Pontini, and Lake Lungo in the Forlì area. (See our SET INFO)
The film is about Flavia, a bright, independent teenager who lives alone in a small Romanian town as her parents leave to work in Italy: her mother as a carer; her father on a construction site. Forced to become an adult at fourteen, she uses sarcasm and emotional distance to survive. When she finds out her parents are planning to divorce, her fragile balance begins to crumble. Flavia finds comfort in her friendship with Luca who shares a similar family situation. Together, they take in two children, Lia, 12, and Dudu, 9, who want to run away from their parents. The house briefly transforms becomes a loving, self-selected, makeshift family, where living freely and caring for one another are a given.
Flavia allows herself to embrace her maternal side for the first time, finding purpose and a sense of belonging in caring for the children. The fragile balance, however, doesn't last long, and when the children leave, the surrogate family collapses, forcing Flavia to confront the painful limits of her desire and the unresolved absence that defines her generation's conflictual relationship with family and intimacy.
The film received national funding in Romania and support from Creative Europe during development, in addition the work benefited from the DGCA-MiC Selective Contribution for 2025 - works in co-production or minority international partnership. International sales are handled by True Colors. The original soundtrack is by Marco Biscarini; music by Riccardo Nanni.