A new documentary by Tudor Platon
"An Almost Perfect Family" explores the intricate makings of family life across two generations
Corina Sabău, 20.09.2025, 12:00
An intimate and moving story about communication across generations, the documentary “An Almost Perfect Family”, directed by Tudor Platon and produced by microFilm, recently premiered in Romania. Premiered at international festivals such as the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (Czech Republic) and DocPoint Helsinki (Finland), the film also has a series of special screenings in Bucharest and in other cities, with the participation of the production team. The documentary was previewed in Iași during the 16th edition of the Romanian Film Evenings, and in Sibiu and Blaj, at ESTE Filmul de Miercuri. News of his parents’ separation, after 30 years of marriage, prompted Tudor Platon to attempt a survey of the relationships around him, using his most powerful ally – the camera.
“My mother came to me one day, in Bucharest, and told me that my father had left. It was a pretty intense moment for me and that’s when I felt the need to take the camera and film what was happening around me. That’s when I started filming, when my mother broke the news, that’s how things happened. That’s how it all started, from this need to use the camera when I feel that something intensely emotional is happening around me. And I can say that yes, the camera gives me courage. Every now and then it helps me pay attention to other things, not just to those that are happening around me. And that brings me some respite. It somehow helps me stop taking everything in stride. The camera, for me, works as an intermediary and helps me see everything in retrospect. I can revisit moments from the past. Obviously, it has a lot to do with the diary, and for now I really can’t give up this habit of carrying the camera everywhere I go. I even have a folder titled video diary where I store everything I am filming”.
“As my family went through multiple changes, I filmed everyone close to me in intimate conversations and moments of vulnerability in order to understand my parents and overcome the fear of forming my own family”, Tudor Platon says. The depth that Tudor Platon imparts to the stories told by his camera transforms them into a discourse on intergenerational trauma, a topic too scarcely explored in Romanian cinema.
“It was an intensely emotional experience. I started filming in 2018 and finished editing in 2023. But the two stories in the film, the story of my parents’ relationship and the story between me and Carla, didn’t start at the same time. It all started with the news of my parents’ separation and there was a period when I was trying to understand what was happening with the help of the camera in my hands. Then, gradually, my relationship with Carla also started growing, and watching this film I realize that it’s like looking at my life from the past few years, especially since there are some moments there, during my relationship with Carla, that very clearly mark a chronological path, including the fact that we ended up having a child. Regarding the generations and the stories about the two couples in the film, I think there’s a pretty big difference between my generation and my parents’. Even though there are more difficult moments in my relationship with Carla, it seems to me very important that we manage to express, to articulate what happens to us, what we feel. We also manage to talk about the things that don’t suit us and it seems to me that my friends try to do the same. It’s a pattern that I didn’t grow up with. At home I grew up with some very awkward moments of silence that are also present in the film, a silence that I didn’t understand anything from, although it was very intense. Well, with the help of the camera I gained a little courage that helps me express everything much better”.
The film’s editing was managed by Delia Oniga and Maria Salomia, the sound design was handled by Ioan Filip and Dan-Ștefan Rucăreanu. The direction, screenplay and image belong to Tudor Platon. The film’s producers are Carla Fotea, Ada Solomon and Tudor Platon. A member of the European Film Academy, Tudor Platon made his filmmaker debut with the film “House of Dolls”, which premiered in 2020 in the Documentary Competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival and was selected in the Transylvania International Film Festival, Zagreb Dox, Astra Film Festival and Biografilm Festival. As a cinematographer, he has worked on over 20 films, both documentaries and features, such as “The New Year That Never Came” and “The Christmas Gift”, both directed by Bogdan Mureșanu, “4:15 P.M. The End of the World”, directed by Gabi Șarga and Cătălin Rotaru or “Arsenie. The Afterlife”, directed by Alexandru Solomon. (VP)
