Alina Manolache

Filmmaker Alina Manolache arrives on an island in Greece with grand plans to film a documentary on Venus de Milo's repatriation, but the project does not materialise. Finding it impossible to accept the new situation, Alina decides to dissect her obsession for work and achievement, through an experiment of doing the exact opposite: nothing. But is there ever nothing? As she meets Mady, a local woman with a very busy family life, the study of nothing turns into a labyrinthine personal journey.

A collection of 6 films made during the lockdown period in Romania.

Filmmaker Alina Manolache was born 1990, the year after the fall and execution of Romanian dictator Ceausescu. It marked the beginning of a new, post-communist era. At the start of the film, she calls out to people who had ever been lost on the beach in the nineties to get in touch with her. This seemingly random appeal leads to her traveling around the country and having conversations with a large number of peers about their memories of the experience, and about their life now.