THE PROFESSIONAL PARENT

Director Statement

Many significant figures from the Romanian film industry worked on this film. It is co-produced by Marian Crișan (winner of the Palm d’Or in 2008, Special Prize at Locarno in 2010), with cinematography by Tudor Mircea (whose work has been screened at festivals such as Cannes, Locarno, New York, Toronto, and San Sebastian) and editing by Cătălin Cristuțiu (whose work has received an award at Berlinale).

In 2017, an 18-month-old Roma girl was murdered by a professional foster parent who was accused of killing the child. This sparked a debate in Slovakia about what professional parenting truly means and its dark sides. There is a group of professional parents who take in Roma children despite holding racist beliefs, and this seems to me to be a contradiction of my own moral boundaries.

During my visits to children’s homes, I noticed that 85% of the children in institutional care were Roma. That was when I realized that my film is not just about professional parents. It is about how our society functions. How we tell ourselves that racism does not affect us, yet at the same time, we silently accept its manifestations in everyday life.

This film is not just Ingrid’s story. It is a story about the moral compromises we make when the system pushes us into a corner. In a time when inflation is destroying family budgets, more and more people find themselves in situations where morality stops being a luxury—it becomes a burden. It is a cruel and sad reality, not just in Slovakia.

With the film The Professional Parent, I want to reach people who may find themselves in a similar struggle—to remind them that moral boundaries and a clear conscience are stronger than the future hardships they may face. I hope this film resonates with the vision of your festival, and I truly appreciate your time and attention in considering it.