While working in the US on a temporary visa as a caretaker, Mara, a 30 year-old single mother from Romania, marries Daniel, an American. After the arrival of her son Dragos, everything seems to have fallen perfectly into place. When the process of getting a green card veers unexpectedly off course, however, Mara is faced with abuses of power on every level and forced to answer a dark question about herself – how far would you go to get what you want?
Acting
Mălina Manovici's face does what pages of dialogue cannot.
Direction
Uricaru makes humiliation feel almost procedural.
Writing
Every 'small' choice accumulates into catastrophe.
Director
Ioana Uricaru
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Ioana Uricaru, herself Romanian-American, based scenes on real immigration interviews she witnessed.
The title's bitter irony: lemonade as American optimism, here curdled into something transactional and sour.
DE
CA
