The Spruce Forest

A secret buried beneath a forest. A massacre largely erased from history. In 1941, in the region of Fântâna Albă, thousands of Romanians seeking freedom were killed under Soviet occupation. Built around the testimony of a survivor and the memories of his wife, deported to Siberia, the film interweaves archival footage, fiction, and personal narrative to illuminate a generation condemned to silence. Director Tudor Giurgiu explores how trauma endures in memory and how history is shaped, forgotten, or distorted over time. More than a historical account, the film becomes a meditation on truth, responsibility, and the fragile boundary between collective memory and personal survival.