Divorce Room
On the seventh anniversary of their wedding, Bálint and Vica’s marriage reaches its breaking point. Infertility, resentment, and failed therapy drive them apart until fate brings them separately to Biertan’s legendary historical Divorce Room in Transylvania, where couples were once locked inside with one bed, one chair, and one spoon until they reconciled or separated. Trapped themselves, they endure a seven-day journey echoing Dante’s Purgatory, confronting jealousy, buried memories, and inherited family trauma. As reality merges with dreamlike visions, they must decide whether their marriage is worth rebuildingmor letting go forever.
Producers' note
We view this project not just as an intimate dramatic endeavor, but as a compelling, high-concept narrative with strong cross-border potential and a distinct global audience. Our financial strategy for this mid-low budget drama (EUR 631,579) focuses on financial stability, and maximizing production value through international collaboration. The project has secured crucial foundational support from the National Film Institute Hungary (NFI). This major domestic backing validates the artistic and commercial merit of the script and provides a secure foundation for international investors. We are leveraging the Hungarian film tax incentive system, which offers a 30% cash rebate on eligible local spend. This significantly de-risks the project for foreign partners. With the NFI backing as our anchor, we are actively seeking international co-production partners (primarily within Europe). We aim to close the remaining financing gap through foreign regional funds, post-production grants, or equity confirmation, while offering partners a share in future revenues and localized distribution rights. Divorce Room explores universal human conflicts that resonate deeply across cultural boundaries, making it highly suitable for international co-distribution. The primary audience consists of adults (aged 25–55), lovers of contemporary relationship dramas, arthouse cinema enthusiasts, and fans of character-driven, emotionally intense storytelling. We will build an early online presence by sharing curated behind-the-scenes content that highlights the dramatic tension of the film. We will also engage with online communities and influencers focused on modern relationships and psychology. Following a prestigious festival run, we will target a traditional theatrical release in Hungary and our co-producing partners' territories. Simultaneously, we will work with international sales agents to secure wider European theatrical distribution and global streaming placement.
Director's note
Inspired by the real historical Divorce Room of Biertan, the film explores whether a marriage can be reborn when two people are forced to confront not only each other, but also the unresolved wounds of previous generations. At its core, the film is about transformation rather than simply saving a relationship.
The story follows a couple on the verge of divorce who travel to the famous Divorce Room of Biertan, a real place that operated for more than three centuries. Couples seeking separation were locked inside for weeks and forced to share a single bed, chair, spoon, and table. According to local records, only one marriage ever ended in divorce. This remarkable historical reality became the foundation of the project.
The film asks an increasingly urgent question: how can two people truly connect in a world shaped by uncertainty, distraction, and emotional isolation? My generation is expected to build careers, relationships, and families while navigating constant social, economic, and environmental instability. Divorce Room emerged from a desire to explore these challenges through a story that is both intimate and universal.
The project also reflects my long-standing interest in family history and inherited memory. Whether understood through psychology, family systems theory, or intergenerational trauma, the past continues to shape the present in ways we rarely recognize. The protagonists struggle not only with each other, but also with inherited fears, emotional patterns, and family narratives that long predate their relationship. The room becomes a contemporary purgatory where they must distinguish what truly belongs to them from what has been unconsciously passed down through generations.
Ultimately, the film suggests that every family carries its own silences, myths, wounds, and unresolved histories, asking whether healing becomes possible only when those invisible legacies are finally confronted.
Biography
With a TV documentary background, Oana Giurgiu’s first film experience was Cristi Puiu’s 2005 Cannes Un Certain Regard winner, The Death of Mr Lăzărescu and Kornél Mundruczó’s 2008 Cannes FIPRESCI winner, Delta. She produced Tudor Giurgiu’s: Love Sick-Berlinale 2006, Panorama, Of Snails and Men - Warsaw IFF 2012, Why Me? - Berlinale 2015, Panorama and Freedom (2023); Peter Strickland’s Katalin Varga - Silver Bear 2009, European Discovery at EFA Awards, Cristi Puiu’s Sieranevada-Cannes 2016.
Filmography
Katalin Varga, 2009,
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1360875/reference/
Why me?, 2015,
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4016994/reference/
Sieranevada, 2016,
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4466490/reference/
Servants, 2020,
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8462814/reference/
Between two dawns, 2021,
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11771704/reference/