THE STORY – 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.
THE CAST – Pavel Vdovîi, Lina Vdovîi, Liudmila Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc
THE TEAM – Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc (Directors/Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 82 Minutes
Since leaving her Moldovan family home at 18 to pursue a career in the newsroom, Romanian journalist Lina Vdovîi has always sought to expose violence. Lina grew up in a peaceful home, only in her father Pavel’s absence. When he left their home for work in Italy, his physical and emotional abuse remained, which would haunt Lina for years to come. Pavel’s toxic masculinity can be traced back to a relentless history of men taught to rule their families with an iron fist. Male aggression becomes so deeply embedded in the fabric of women’s lives, from how they see themselves to the inherited traumas that persist over time. Through her documentary “Tata,” Lina vows to break the vicious cycle, not only for herself and generations to follow but also for her father.
“Tata” follows a pregnant Lina’s fragile path towards healing when she receives a troubling video message from Italy. Her father, shown bruised and in distress, pleads for help. The investigative journalist wants to uncover the cause of his suffering and collect the supporting evidence needed. The daughter in her feels conflicted with unresolved trauma. Injustices in the workplace she had fought to expose now arise in her father. In wanting to know where the violence in her family came from, Lina and her real-life partner Radu Ciorniciuc travel to Italy for answers. What they unearth reaches far beyond journalistic and familial expectations. Co-directed by Vdovîi and Ciorniciuc, “Tata” is a stunning reexamination of the past to make room for a better future.
When Lina first met Radu in the newsroom, her father’s violence had long become a part of her DNA, “Like an invisible hand or an extra lung.” She needed someone with whom she could feel safe. The deeper she and Radu’s relationship blossomed, the more urgent her push to rewrite history for their family’s future. In her relationship, Lina recognized certain traits and dynamics that stem from her upbringing. She gives her partner a lot of freedom because she knows how it feels to be suffocated. Lina’s acute awareness and insightfulness push the narrative of “Tata,” which means “father” in Romanian, towards surprising revelations.
What makes the documentary so impactful is how it multiplies in layers. The feeling of the walls coming down on Lina opens doors that perhaps otherwise would have stayed buried. An estranged father and daughter relationship lead to explorations of women bonded by danger and unflinching observations of an immigrant worker abused by his boss. “Tata” is as much about returning to violence as escaping from it, taking a raw approach to understanding how one act informs the other. The Italian grounds her father works on — where the mere passing of an employer’s care sends him into panic mode — becomes a foundation for a new stage in Lina’s healing.
All roads lead to home, and so, Lina’s journey eventually takes her from Italy to the place she fled: Moldova. Once there, the film gives a powerful voice to the women in her family. Listening to how her sister, mother, and grandmother tolerated violence as a means of survival adds to a resonating portrait of family history. Lina and her sister were bonded by avoiding danger and being the only people to understand such a specific chain of events. Lina’s mother navigated years of naiveté to reach a pivotal time “when you have to put yourself first.” Lina’s grandmother was married three times, and when asked why none of the husbands beat her, she replied that she knew how to deal with them psychologically and “treat [men] with respect.” Each of these perspectives evokes the powerful feeling of shedding tears over the women who came before you, whose years of inherited pain cast a shadow that is very hard to evade.
“Tata” also works wonders as an exposé. It maintains an investigative, incredibly perceptive spirit that keeps urgent subjects in focus throughout. In particular, the use of hidden camera equipment shows the abuses inflicted upon Pavel from a first-person perspective. This footage becomes crucial evidence for his case and starts a separate conversation about how aggression becomes commonplace.
The discussions between Lina and her father in “Tata” are some of the most raw expressions of family trauma. From his point of view, the story is about a father who could not show love for his children and could not unlearn the years of toxic masculinity by from previous generations. By its very existence, the documentary is a way of unlearning and relearning. It is an attempt to bridge intergenerational gaps as a new life is brought into the world. The birth of Lina’s daughter opens doors to “a fragile universe where love doesn’t hurt.” As “Tata” so devastatingly and confidently conveys, there are worlds within worlds that exist in a family. Perhaps this is where one can make the most profound change of all.
