Lost Kids on the Beach

Filmmaker Alina Manolache was born 1990, the year after the fall and execution of Romanian dictator Ceausescu. It marked the beginning of a new, post-communist era. At the start of the film, she calls out to people who had ever been lost on the beach in the nineties to get in touch with her. This seemingly random appeal leads to her traveling around the country and having conversations with a large number of peers about their memories of the experience, and about their life now. These children of the 1990s seem to be doing well, although some of the conversations take on a darker undertone when the subject turns to concerns about the country and the shadow of the past. Manolache’s interviewing style is light and casual in tone—she often appears in the frame—as she pieces together a portrait of her peers. The word “lost” is frequently applied to her generation, but that turns out to have many different meanings. What it doesn’t apply to, however, is their optimism and hope for the future.