I first came to the Ukrainian Carpathians in 2016, in the Rakhiv district of Hutsulshchyna. At the time, I wasn’t planning a project, but this place proved stronger than any route or plan. Over time, I kept returning, and these mountains became a second homeland — a place where I feel a deep connection with both the people and the land.
La o Margine de Munte is a project about how people continue to live in rhythm with nature, despite the pressures of time, civilization, war, tourism, and economic changes. In the Carpathians, time moves according to its own course, not forward — but in circles, like the seasons. Much still depends on manual labor, seasonality, and knowledge passed down not through books, but through experience.
Over nine years, I have built a large film archive — faces, roads, daily life, work, the silence of the mountains. This is an ongoing story, and I am not rushing to draw conclusions. For now, I am sharing only a small selection — sixteen frames— an open chapter from a project still in progress.
