US AGAINST US

The director and her father take a camera in hand and film each other during interviews in which they discuss schizophrenia, their own pasts, and their personal conceptions of happiness. The film is a personal statement of two people affected by or marked by a mental disorder — a father forced to live with it and a daughter who had to grow up with a sick and often absent father. During filming, they try to find understanding for each other while revealing their inner traumas. One of the secondary topics is what it is like to undergo treatment for a mental disorder in Romania, as the father expresses frustration with the way he and his condition are viewed by the local healthcare system.

ANDRA TARARA

Documentary film director, camera operator, editor, video artist, photographer and archivist. She is a UNATC graduate in Film and Television (2016) and a master’s degree graduate in Visual Anthropology from SNSPA in Bucharest (2018). She is interested in a collaborative approach of the artistic process on subjects such as personal stories pertaining to wider social, political, and historical mechanisms. A DEATH IN MY FAMILY (premiered at Transylvania International Film Festival — Romanian Days, 2018) is Andra’s first first film as a director, a short documentary filmed on 35mm + digital, which she also shot and edited. Andra is currently working as an archivist at the Romanian Peasant Museum — The Museum’s Visual Archive — and as an independent photographer and videographer.

 

• Ji.hlava IDFF / Czech Republic
• Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest / Romania

 

DOKer 2021 — Dok Therapy