Moldovan director wins the Golden Bear for short film confronting her childhood abuser

Moldovan director Olga Lucovnicova has scooped the top prize at the Berlinale film festival.

Competing against 19 other shorts, the film My Uncle Tudor follows Lucovnicova as she confronts her uncle 20 years after he sexually abused her. When asked, he admits to molesting the director but remains unrepentant, saying he’d done her a “good deed”. A co-production by Belgium, Portugal, and Hungary, the film was made as Lucovnicova’s MA project.

“In Nanu Tudor (My Uncle Tudor), Olga Lucovnicova leads us through the complexity of unraveling a childhood trauma,” the jury said. “Lucovnicova’s subtle cinematic gaze circles around her family members with precision. Her personal courage combined with cinematic mastery create a film that is both powerful and emotionally layered.”

“It was a very difficult decision for me to make this film, and now I am still fighting through the consequences of it, because many of my family members try to confront me, to convince me to still be quiet and keep the image of a perfect family,” Lucovnica said. The prize was “a way for me to understand that I did the right thing,” she added.

Born in 1991, Lucovnica studied film at the Academy of Arts in Chișinău before going on an Erasmus exchange to Lisbon, Budapest, and Brussels. Her 2015 film, Death, I Don’t Love You…, won the top prize at Moldova’s documentary festival Cronograf.