Alice On & Off, a remarkable debut documentary
A talk with Isabela Trent, the director of Alice On & Off
Corina Sabău, 13.12.2025, 14:00
In her debut documentary, Alice On & Off, Isabela Tent follows the story of a young woman trapped in a traumatic loop. Deprived of her parents’ affection, at 16 Alice falls in love with Dorian, a man over 50, marries him, and gives birth to a son, Aristo. To support her family, Alice is forced to abandon her studies in fine arts and earn money through videochat. Financial hardship drives her to seek refuge in drugs. She struggles with addiction while trying to remain present in her son’s life, but seemingly fails. Summed up, this is the story told by the multi-award-winning documentary Alice On & Off.
Winner in 2024 of several prizes (the Romanian Days Award for Debut and the FIPRESCI Prize at TIFF/Transilvania International Film Festival, as well as Best Romanian Documentary at Astra Film Festival). this year Alice On & Off received the Gopo Award for Best Documentary. The film had its world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival in Poland and was also screened at other major festivals such as the Sarajevo Film Festival, Indie Cork in Ireland and Doku Baku in Azerbaijan, where it received a Special Mention from the jury.
Isabela Tent told RRI that as a teenager, before discovering cinema, she wanted to become a neurosurgeon. Her participation in a Let’s Go Digital! workshop—one of the most popular projects of the Transilvania International Film Festival, aimed at promoting film education among teenagers and discovering new talent—changed her life.
“At the end of that workshop we had a meeting with the participants and coordinators, and at that meeting Sorin Botoșeneanu, who was then dean of the Film Faculty at UNATC/‘Ion Luca Caragiale’ National University of Theatre and Film, asked me if I wouldn’t like to study film directing. It was a decisive moment for me, even though at the time I answered no, that I still wanted to study medicine. But that question stayed with me, and at the beginning of 12th grade I told my parents that I had changed my mind and would study film. It took many years for them to understand that I was fine, that I was actually very happy with the decision I had made. I realize that only after choosing my path did I begin to be inspired by certain filmmakers. One of them is Agnès Varda, a female director who makes the transition from documentary to fiction in a fabulous way”.
We also spoke with Isabela Tent about the film’s production process and the challenges she overcame during the ten years of work.
“It was complicated, but I have no regrets. It was complicated and painful, because as I worked on the film, I began to become aware of things related to my own family. Sometimes it’s difficult to stay three months on a project, let alone 10 years. When Alice began to talk about her childhood, about how she was treated and the lack of affection from her family, I started to resonate with her. I tend to believe that my generation is one that becomes aware of the traumas it has lived through. At least that’s what I want to believe. As we say in the film, it seems to me that at least we try to confront this vicious circle of trauma. Whether we succeed in breaking it or not, I think it’s essential to confront it. Nowadays, the need to talk about trauma has become very present. And I can say that working on the film was like a carousel of emotions and states, but also of information I was receiving”.
“The winner of the award for Best Film is a family portrait that haunts us long after the closing credits. Made with tenacity in a process lasting more than 10 years, the documentary brings to the fore a teenage artist turned mother, in a liminal, shadowy universe full of risks and brutality. Through a relationship that oscillates between compassion and exploitation, attraction and repulsion, we discover a world where survival is constantly in question. For the challenges overcome by the team, for the solidarity and empathy shown toward vulnerable and imperfect protagonists, the Award for Best Film in the Romania Competition goes to Alice On & Off”.
This was the motivation of the Astra Film Festival Jury, which decided that the prize for Best Romanian Documentary should go to Alice On & Off. (VP)
