The Delta of Bucharest / Delta Bucureştiului

The history of a place. The communist era. Bucharest. Women in political detention give birth in one of the most beautiful monasteries in Eastern Europe, Văcărești, turned into a prison. Today, wild nature has taken over the site, forming an ecosystem covering several hectares: protected species of fauna and flora… and gypsy families. Children born in the same space, in similarly hazardous conditions…

« Making this documentary means plunging back into my memories, but going even further back, before my birth, to seek the history of the place. The trigger is Lena Constante’s tapestry, sent to me in Paris by my mother. Lena was a political prisoner. Trying to learn more about her years in Văcărești prison, I found out that a great number of women gave birth in between this prison’s walls. This documentary is a plunge into a world that is simultaneously extremely cruel and exceptionally beautiful, a product of the dreams of each generation. It is these dreams that helped women to survive decades in prison, tortured and isolated, with no books or paper to evade their situation anywhere but in their own heads. Ceaușescu’s dream of creating a lake spanning several hectares was a crazy one. Văcăresti today represents a dream for young architects and ecologists who have come to project their vision of a better and cleaner future. » Eva Pervolovici