THE STORY – Rebeca, a young Roma girl, faces eviction from her orphanage as she is waiting for her father to be released from jail. Torn between hope and threat, she is forced to accept her identity and make it through life on her own.
THE CAST – Denisa Farcaș, Sorin Mihai, Angelina Pavel, Vanessa Dancea, Raisa Mihai, Alexandru Stancu, Alina Berzunțeanu & Natalia Călin
THE TEAM – Alina Şerban (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
Turning 18 is supposed to represent freedom, but for Rebeca (Denisa Farcaș) it comes with an expiration date. Having spent the past seven years in a children’s home, she is approaching the age when she will be expected to leave the only stable environment she has known. Rebeca believes she already has a solution. Her father will soon be released from prison and the two can finally become the family she has imagined for years. As that possibility grows increasingly uncertain, she is forced to consider a future that doesn’t depend on somebody else coming to save her. Drawing from aspects of her own experiences, writer-director Alina Șerban turns this transition into a tender coming-of-age story about identity, belonging, and learning to embrace a life that does not conform to conventional expectations.
Rebeca is an immediately endearing presence. She sings, dances, and dreams of becoming an actress, with performing offering an escape from the uncertainty surrounding her. When she is accepted into university, that ambition suddenly carries greater consequences. Continuing her education would allow her to remain in institutional housing while pursuing something she genuinely loves. What should simply be an exciting milestone becomes a means of securing her immediate future.
Șerban approaches Rebeca with an intimacy that prevents “I Matter” from reducing her to her circumstances. She is Romani and has grown up in institutional care, but neither defines her entirely. She worries about romance, makes mistakes, argues with friends, and expresses herself through music. Discrimination and financial insecurity remain significant, but Șerban gives joy equal space. That warmth extends to the other young people in the children’s home. Rather than presenting it as somewhere Rebeca needs to escape, the film recognizes it as her home, filled with friends and memories that have formed a makeshift family. The teenagers’ teasing, dancing, and arguments create a convincing sense of community without constantly underlining the film’s larger themes.
As an actress, Farcaș is essential to the film’s appeal. She gives the character of Rebeca an effortless charisma that becomes especially apparent whenever she performs. There is a confidence in those moments that contrasts nicely with the uncertainty governing the rest of her life. Rebeca gradually realizes that her father may never become the person she needs him to be. Rather than building toward one enormous confrontation, the disappointment accumulates quietly until she can no longer maintain the fantasy she has constructed around him. Her Romani identity becomes increasingly important once she enters environments beyond the children’s home. Director Alina Șerban is attentive to the casual assumptions people make about family, education, and money. What constitutes an ordinary childhood for others is completely foreign to Rebeca. Her journey is therefore not about escaping her background to fit into this supposedly normal world; it is about recognizing that she should never have been made to feel ashamed of it.
The perspective behind “I Matter” is ultimately more distinctive than the filmmaking itself. Șerban favors a straightforward naturalism and several developments follow familiar coming-of-age patterns. The film is sincere to a fault, occasionally emphasizing emotions that Farcaș has already communicated effectively. There are also many competing threads surrounding Rebeca’s father, education, romantic life, friendships, and financial situation. Not all of them receive enough space to feel equally developed. But truth be told the conventional execution rarely diminishes the affection Șerban has for these characters. The film consistently chooses tenderness without ignoring the brutality that can exist alongside it. Its most affecting moment arguably arrives during the closing credits, when footage shows the young cast dancing, embracing, and celebrating together. The spontaneous joy in these images feels more powerful than some of the deliberately constructed emotional beats that precede them.
That spirit captures what works best about “I Matter.“ This is not a story arguing that Rebeca must overcome where she comes from. Growing up instead requires her to understand that a nontraditional family is still a family and that her Romani identity is not something requiring an apology. Șerban’s debut may follow a recognizable path, but the person walking it gives the film its specificity. With Farcaș providing a charming emotional center, “I Matter“ becomes a heartfelt celebration of a young woman realizing that belonging does not have to be granted by somebody else.
