Alina Șerban

Writer-director

Romania

Alina Șerban is the winner of Best Actress Award at the German Actors Guild Awards 2020 for her leading role in “Gipsy Queen”, a nominee for Best Actress at the German Film Awards 2020 and the representative of Romania at The Cannes International Film Festival 2018 for her leading role in “Alone at My Wedding”.
The first one in her family to graduate high-school, she succeeded to graduate the Tisch School of the Arts in New York and obtained a master’s from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, becoming an award-winning actress and the first Roma woman theatre and film director of Romania.
In 2020, Alina Serban made her debut as a filmmaker with the short film “Letter of Forgiveness”, the first film about the Roma slavery written and directed from a Roma perspective. She is currently working on her second short, “I matter” (premiere planned for Spring 2021), that she is developing into a feature.

Photo by Cornel Brad

Project

I matter

Rebeca, 19, lives in the social care system along with others and her best friend Simona. They dream of leaving the system and having a home together. Rebeca, enrolled at the best acting school in Romania, enjoys her time in classes even knowing that if she fails an exam she will be forced to leave the system.
One day, Rebeca returns from the University to find Simona gone. Simona dismisses her when Rebeca reaches out to her. The most important exam of the year is announced at school, requiring students to bring personal belongings, to show their environment from home. Rebeca doesn’t want to tell others that she is an orphan, with no real home and she starts panicking.
When Simona dies in a gas leaking accident, Rebeca goes to her mother. She is in a mental hospital and doesn’t recognize her.
As Rebeca recovers, she organizes a funeral for Simona and the others that have died and, after asking the dean to let her stay at the student home, Rebeca leaves the social care system.