The Exile from Bessarabia

The Exile from Bessarabia uncovers the forgotten history of the Roma Holocaust through the testimony of its last living survivors. Blending intimate interviews and archival material,
the film restores voice to a silenced genocide in Eastern Europe. From Bessarabia to the camps of Transnistria, Roma families were uprooted, displaced, and condemned to exile. For decades, their suffering remained buried in silence. The Exile from Bessarabia restores the forgotten voices of Roma Holocaust survivors — and confronts the silence that followed. A documentary of remembrance. A warning for today...

  • Sergiu Ene
    Director
  • Natalia Ghilascu
    Director
  • Natalia Ghilascu
    Writer
  • Nicolae Radita
    Producer
  • Natalia Ghilascu
    Producer
  • Ion Duminica
    Key Cast
  • Sergiu Musteata
    Key Cast
  • Igor Niculcea
    Key Cast
  • Sergiu Ene
    Direcrtor of Protography
  • Sergiu ene
    Film Editor & Sound
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    55 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 25, 2026
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Moldova
  • Country of Filming:
    Moldova, Ukraine
  • Language:
    English, Romanian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Director Biography - Sergiu Ene, Natalia Ghilascu

Natalia Ghilascu is an acclaimed journalist, filmmaker, and TV producer from Moldova whose work has earned international recognition and national accolades for her dedication to human rights advocacy and storytelling. Her career reflects an unwavering commitment to giving a voice to the underrepresented and bringing critical social issues to light.

This film would not have achieved its emotional depth without the artistic vision of Sergiu Ene, whose direction and cinematography transform testimony into lived experience. Through restrained visual language, intimate framing, and a profound sensitivity to silence, Sergiu brings the audience into a space where memory breathes. His ability to capture emotion through light, stillness, and gesture allows survivors’ voices to resonate beyond words.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

As a journalist and filmmaker from Moldova, I have spent my career documenting the lives of those whose voices are often overlooked. Yet nothing prepared me for the silence surrounding the deportation of the Roma community from Bessarabia during World War II. It was not only the tragedy itself that struck me—it was the absence of public memory.

I felt a moral responsibility to confront this historical erasure. The Exile from Bessarabia is built around the fragile yet powerful testimonies of the last surviving witnesses.

I felt compelled to confront this historical erasure—not only because it belongs to the past, but because it speaks directly to our present. Across the world, Roma communities continue to face systemic discrimination, forced evictions, statelessness, and political scapegoating.

By restoring visibility to the Roma Holocaust in Eastern Europe, this film seeks to expand the moral frame of collective memory. In a time marked by resurgent nationalism, displacement, and rising hate speech, remembrance itself becomes a human rights act.

Cinema has the power not only to preserve testimony but to reinsert it into global consciousness. My hope is that this film contributes to a broader reckoning—one that affirms dignity, confronts denial, and insists that marginalized histories are central to our shared future.