Rachel Taparjan’s debut feature, Something Familiar, is set to world premiere in the main competition of the 23rd Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival (CPH:DOX) on Tuesday, March 17. The documentary delves into deeply personal and traumatic family histories, challenging conventional understandings of identity and the widely publicized narratives surrounding Romanian orphans. The film follows Taparjan as she assists another woman in searching for her birth mother, a journey that unexpectedly pulls the filmmaker into the dark legacy affecting women within her own family.
The Legacy of Romanian Adoptions
The subject of Romanian orphans carries significant historical weight, stemming from the collapse of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist regime in 1989. The world was confronted with shocking images of overcrowded, underfunded, and often abusive orphanages, filled with children suffering from severe neglect and developmental delays. This revelation sparked an international outcry and led to a massive wave of international adoptions throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with thousands of children adopted by families in Western countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
These adoptions, while often seen as humanitarian rescues, created complex long-term challenges for the children involved. Many adoptees grappled with profound identity issues, attachment disorders, and the lingering effects of early childhood trauma. Their stories often became simplified narratives of escape and salvation, overlooking the nuanced psychological landscapes they navigated. Something Familiar aims to deconstruct these pre-existing narratives, offering a more intricate and personal exploration from an insider’s perspective.
A Filmmaker’s Personal Journey
Taparjan, a British-Romanian filmmaker, brings a unique and inherently personal lens to the subject. Her own connection to the adoption landscape in Romania is central to the film’s narrative, making her both the director and a key subject. The documentary’s logline reveals this duality: "While helping a woman search for her birth mother, Taparjan is drawn into her own family history, uncovering a dark legacy that has loomed over its women." This interwoven narrative structure promises a multi-layered exploration of inherited trauma and the search for familial roots.
The film’s synopsis further elaborates on this intertwined journey. It states that after Mihaela reaches out to Taparjan for assistance in finding her birth mother, they return to the very orphanage where both women were adopted. Mihaela’s discoveries prompt her to question her entire identity, simultaneously pulling Rachel into her own past. This shared experience unveils a painful legacy that has affected the women in their families, a legacy they share despite their separate upbringings. The film posits that while physical separation occurred, a deeper, perhaps spiritual or inherited, connection to this trauma persisted.
Production Milestones and Recognition
Before its highly anticipated premiere, Something Familiar garnered significant industry attention. The film was selected for the prestigious docs-in-progress showcase at Cannes Docs 2025, an important platform for works nearing completion. It also received the Chicken & Egg Vision Award, an accolade recognizing women and non-binary filmmakers whose work tackles social justice issues and demonstrates artistic excellence. These early recognitions underscore the film’s potential impact and its resonance within the documentary filmmaking community.
The documentary is a Romanian-British co-production, a collaboration reflecting the director’s dual heritage and the transnational nature of its subject matter. Produced by Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan and Elena Martin for Manifest Film in Romania, and Aleksandra Bilic for My Accomplice in the U.K., with co-production by Dermot O’Dempsey in association with Shudder Films, the project exemplifies international cooperation in filmmaking. Stranger Films Sales is handling global distribution, indicating broad interest in the film’s unique narrative and thematic depth.
Challenging Established Narratives with ‘Something Familiar’
Taparjan’s directorial statement offers insight into her ambitious goals for Something Familiar. She articulated a desire to "usurp pre-existing narratives about my chosen subjects." This ambition extends beyond the immediate topic of Romanian orphans, as evidenced by her previous documentary shorts, Mind the Gap (exploring sex work) and Where are you coming from? (addressing poverty tourism). In each project, Taparjan seeks to dismantle simplistic or prejudiced public perceptions, replacing them with more nuanced, human-centered stories.
For Something Familiar, this means moving beyond the often-sensationalized and externally imposed narratives surrounding Romanian adoption. Instead, the film offers an introspective journey, emphasizing the internal experience of those directly affected. By placing the personal experiences of Taparjan and Mihaela at the forefront, the documentary seeks to provide a corrective to broader, often reductive, societal understandings. It invites audiences to reconsider the complexities of identity formation when confronted with a fragmented past.
Deconstructing Trauma and Identity
The film is described as a "dissection of family bonds, absence, and trauma," probing how these elements shape individual identity. Taparjan’s approach includes unconventional filmmaking techniques, such as enlisting actresses to portray her mother in a series of direct encounters on screen. This artistic choice, she explains, is an attempt to find "clarity or catharsis, or simply to explore possibilities," when faced with the inherent difficulties of representing a painful and perhaps unreliable personal history.
This meta-narrative element is crucial to the film’s thematic exploration. Taparjan grapples with the challenge of being both filmmaker and subject, questioning her reliability as a narrator when her own trust in reality has been compromised by trauma. "How can I be your reliable narrator in a documentary film, when I don’t trust reality?" she asks in her director’s statement. "How can I be open and authentic on camera when hiding and shape-shifting has kept me alive? In other words, how can I achieve the impossible?" These questions highlight the film’s profound engagement with the very nature of truth, memory, and subjective experience.
Cultural Resonance and Public Dialogue
Something Familiar is poised to ignite significant cultural dialogue surrounding adoption, inherited trauma, and the power of personal storytelling. The film’s exploration of self-authorship as a means to "rewrite familiar narratives" holds particular resonance in an era increasingly focused on individual agency and the reclamation of personal histories. Taparjan believes in the "alchemical potential of self-authorship in the face of a traumatic past – a way to reimagine adversity as adventure, a way to make something familiar feel brand new, a way of offering yourself a story you can bear to live with!"
This perspective suggests that the act of crafting one’s own narrative can be a transformative process, offering a path toward healing and acceptance. The film’s themes extend beyond the specific context of Romanian orphans, touching on universal experiences of familial legacy, the search for belonging, and the psychological impact of unaddressed historical wounds. It prompts viewers to consider how personal stories, when authentically told, can challenge broader societal assumptions and foster empathy.
The Power of Self-Authorship in Documentary
Taparjan’s concluding reflections emphasize the therapeutic potential of filmmaking itself. Citing George Bernard Shaw’s adage, "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance," she posits that "The ultimate triumph over trauma is play!" This sentiment underscores the film’s innovative spirit, using creative expression not just to document trauma but to actively engage with it, transform it, and ultimately, transcend it. The documentary genre, typically associated with objective truth, here becomes a vehicle for subjective healing and reinterpretation.
The film’s premiere at CPH:DOX, a festival renowned for showcasing artistically strong and socially engaged documentaries, positions Something Familiar to reach an audience receptive to its challenging themes and innovative approach. CPH:DOX is one of the largest documentary film festivals globally, known for its focus on films that push boundaries and spark critical discourse. A main competition slot at such a prestigious event signifies the festival’s recognition of the film’s artistic merit and its potential to contribute meaningfully to contemporary cinema.
Anticipation at CPH:DOX and Beyond
The exclusive trailer for Something Familiar, released ahead of its CPH:DOX premiere, offers a glimpse into the intimate and evocative journey undertaken by Rachel and Mihaela. The footage hints at emotional depth and visual storytelling that complements the complex narrative. As the film prepares for its global debut, anticipation is high for how it will resonate with critics and audiences, particularly those with personal connections to adoption or histories of inherited trauma.
The film’s exploration of profound themes through a unique blend of personal narrative and meta-commentary on filmmaking itself positions it as a significant work in contemporary documentary cinema. By allowing Rachel and Mihaela to guide viewers through their search for Something Familiar, the documentary promises not only to illuminate a specific historical context but also to offer universal insights into the human quest for identity, connection, and the courage to confront one’s past.
