Tata

Lina and her father have been estranged for many years. Like countless others, he left their impoverished homeland of Moldova in the 1990s for work abroad. Decades later, she is a journalist and settled with a good partner and a fine life in Romania. When Lina receives a video message from her father, showing bruises on his arms, she is conflicted about her feelings towards a man who is all but a stranger to her.

Travelling to Italy and equipping him with a hidden camera so that he may pursue justice, Lina — pregnant and with a pressing urge to confront the most painful parts of her past so as not to repeat them — finds herself on a parallel journey, uncovering a pattern of domestic violence that has plagued her family for generations. In understanding what was tolerated for survival and challenging what was accepted as normal when it comes to violence, Tata (meaning father in many languages including Romanian, which is the official language of Moldova) is an urgent and beautiful push to rewrite the narratives and traumas we inherit and — for our own good — must work to heal and release.

Co-directed by Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc, who are partners and parents in real life, and filmed across Italy, Moldova, and Romania, Tata is a raw portrait of a family locked in a relentless struggle against toxic masculinity and the tale of a daughter's poignant quest to break the cycle for herself, the next generation, and even for the one who hurt her.

DOROTA LECH