Recorder: Alone. The Endless Nightmare of Abandoned Children

Cristian Delcea, Mihai Voinea, Diana Meseșan / Romania / 2025 / 82 min

In the midst of the pandemic, a child runs away from a foster care center in southern Romania, terrified by the behavior of one of his caregivers. He walks for miles through rain and cold. His escape will eventually expose a pattern of abuse that had continued at the center for nearly two decades, concealed by the passivity of its employees. Generations of boys had been terrorized by the same caregiver, without anyone stepping in to protect them. Over time, the abuse became a collective secret. Behind this story lies the legacy of Romania’s demographic policies of the 1960s, which contributed to the abandonment and institutionalization of tens of thousands of children and left behind a collective trauma that remains insufficiently acknowledged and addressed