Marion, "The Devil's Child"
Marion, "The Devil's Child"
The Devil's Child
This is the title of the documentary film that Marion Le Roy Dagen, a French woman adopted in Romania, has just shot in collaboration with photojournalist Elisabeth Blanchet and director Ursula Wernly Fergui.
Thirty-four years ago, Marion was told that her biological mother had died…
Thirty-four years ago, this mother was told that her child had died…
In this moving documentary, Marion travels to Romania to visit her mother, who is still alive.
She also meets the children that Elisabeth Blanchet photographed in orphanages 25 years ago. What has become of them?
Photo taken from the "20 Years Later" collection by Elisabeth Blanchet © E. Blanchet (1)
The film will premiere on the TLT Toulouse channel on Friday, January 9, 2015, at 9:00 PM. We will announce broadcast dates on other channels later. Exclusively for the website "Adopted Children from Romania," Marion shares her life story:
“I was born 38 years ago in AIUD in Transylvania.
I was placed in an institution a few weeks after my birth and then adopted at the end of 1982, at the age of 6, by a French family. The dictator Ceausescu was still in power at the time, and it took two years of bureaucratic wrangling before he gave his consent for my adoption, for my freedom!
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Marion and her adoptive parents © E. Blanchet
My parents never hid from me that I was adopted.
My biological mother's full name, "Ana," appeared on my adoption papers. It stated that my father was unknown. Shortly after my adoption, my parents received a letter from my orphanage in which the director informed them that Ana had died. Strangely, I always had a vague feeling that it wasn't true. In 1989, I was 12 years old, Christmas was approaching, and I was sitting in the living room watching the news with my parents, where all the channels were endlessly broadcasting the chaos in Romania. This revolution that was engulfing my country was also a revolution in my mind. It was the turning point, the explosion that triggered my quest for identity.
I was going through a full-blown pre-adolescent crisis. Feeling unwell, emotionally and physically, I felt so different and so misunderstood by others. I wasn't always easy with my parents during that time: I withdrew into silence, became angry with them, slammed doors, and had a rebellious spirit.
I had built my identity on the idea that it was despicable and inexcusable for parents to abandon a child. This could easily lead me to believe that I might carry some kind of "bad blood." This could easily instill in me shame about my origins and low self-esteem. This placed me, as an adoptee, in the position of a poor victim of designated culprits. This, in turn, made my adoptive parents appear as saviors and not simply as parents. Feeling indebted to them could only undermine all the filial love I felt for them.
I remained haunted by unanswered questions, by the shadows surrounding my birth. I needed to understand the reasons for my abandonment, the reasons for this maternal and paternal act that seemed incomprehensible and cruel to me. I wanted to know how this separation from my birth mother had unfolded. Had I been fed, cared for, surrounded by tenderness, attention, and love?
If Ana was indeed dead, I would never have my answers. To find out, I had to do some research. But was I truly ready to confront a painful past in order to build my identity and thus face my future with greater peace of mind?
In 2000, while I was in Romania on a humanitarian trip with a small group of students, I ran into Ana again, by an incredible coincidence:
Our route took us through Aiud, my birthplace, so we decided to stop there, just long enough for a coffee. We were sitting comfortably on the bar's terrace when one of my friends suggested I ask the owner if she knew anyone with my biological name. I thought to myself: why not give it a try?
The woman behind the bar told me she knew a family by that name in a nearby neighborhood and gave me the address of a house where a man named Banicu could give me more information. When we arrived at the address, we passed a disheveled, drunk man, and I thought to myself, "I hope that's not my father!"
Then an older man came out of the house; it was Banicu. He came towards us, staring at us, when suddenly his gaze lingered intently on me… And then he suddenly said:
"You
're from Romania,"
I replied, amused. "Yes,
I'm Romanian, I was adopted."
Then, to my great surprise, he continued, "You're Ana's daughter!"
At that moment I was paralyzed with fear. The sky had just fallen on my head! My mother was alive and well, and she was somewhere, right there, very close!
Bunicu leads us to Ana's house. The shock is intense, and probably even more so for her, who hadn't expected, just a minute earlier, to see her child resurrected and
transformed into a young, foreign woman. Because, in Ana's home too, they had told me I was dead!
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Marion and Ana (detail) © E. Blanchet
From an emotional point of view, the encounter is difficult and communication is made even more complicated by the language barrier.
All the intimate questions that had tormented me for 34 years now flew at this woman who remained a stranger to me. Was Ana afraid of disappointing me? Her explanations about my origins and my story seemed confused. She gave me different versions when I rephrased the same question. I left perplexed… I went back to Romania three times to see Ana, but always remaining wary and without feeling the desire to invest in the relationship.
It's only since the birth of my son in 2013 that I've felt ready to truly "connect" with Ana, to finally hear and understand her story, and therefore my own as well. I want to know what to tell my son when he asks me about my origins.
I had always recognized as my parents only those with whom I had forged a deep, familial bond. Finding my biological mother alone hadn't been enough to completely rid me of the resentment instilled in me by the Western view of abandonment and adoption. It was only by becoming a mother myself that I realized how nothing had ever managed to sever the link that, like every individual, connects me to my biological lineage. A link that in no way diminishes the one that also binds me to my adoptive parents.
Marion and Ana, her biological mother © E. Blanchet
The 2014 trip to film "The Devil's Child" gave me the opportunity to reconnect with Ana, this time with a good French/Romanian interpreter. It also offered a fresh perspective, one far less clouded by the filter of my prejudices. These prejudices, rooted in Western collective thought, had instilled in me so much fear, resentment, and suffering that could have been avoided.
I then discover that I was not abandoned by Ana, but that we were separated.
Rejected at 18 by her family when they learned she was pregnant after a brief love affair, Ana gave birth alone at home to a premature baby. Weakened, distraught,
and without income, she placed me a few weeks later in an "orphanage" (2) which ensured my survival until her situation improved so she could take me back.
I was four years old when she was told that foreigners wanted to adopt me. At that time, living conditions in orphanages and foster families were so dire that infant mortality was high. No one imagined that soon, a bloodless and starving Romania would be liberated from the self-proclaimed "Father of the Nation" and his diabolical wife. In Ana's mind, "adoptive parents" meant "volunteer foster family"; I would have a good life, and she would be able to hear from me. For this to happen, she had to sign a paper. Ana was young, alone, and impressionable. As soon as she signed this "paper," which turned out to be an act of abandonment, the director made it clear that she would never get me back!
Shortly afterwards, I was told that I could not be adopted because 'alas, in the meantime I died' (2).
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Father and son discover Marion © E. Blanchet
All Ana had left of my father was a photo and a name. The film crew helped me find him.
The meeting with my biological father took place in a completely unexpected and unforeseen way.
This documentary film, "The Devil's Child" (3), was made in memory of my comrades, the survivors of the Ceaușescu regime. It is also a way to pay tribute to all those who survived, who suffered the worst abuses and continue to suffer the consequences, and to all those who lost their souls and their lives. It is also, for me, a way to pay tribute to my adoptive father who encouraged me to find my biological mother. He died while I was pregnant with my son.
I am on the path of forgiveness, which is freeing me from anger and hatred.
Marion Le Roy Dagen, comments collected by Nadine Delpech for the website "Les adoptes de Roumanie" originally published Wednesday, January 7, 2015.
With the kind contribution of Elisabeth Blanchet for the photos.
Marion and her biological father in 2014 during the filming of the movie © E. Blanchet
Trailer for the documentary
*1 http://rue89.nouvelobs.com/2009/12/28/roumanie-parcours-dorphelins-vingt-ans-apres-ceaucescu-131534
*2 http://lesadoptesderoumanie.blogspot.fr/search/label/Histoire%20des%20adopt%C3%A9s%20%282%2F2%29
*3 http://www.kanarifilms.fr/Kanarifilms/Lenfant_du_diable.html
Article on this blog concerning the screening of the film at the Scam.
YouTube channel of the independent producer Kanari Films .
For more information:
The Facebook page dedicated to the documentary : "The Devil's Child, the doc"
One of the websites of the artist Elisabeth Blanchet and her Facebook page
Presentation of director Ursula Wernly Fergui on the website of the production company Kanari Films.
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This entry was posted in Testimonials and tagged Adoption , Audiovisual , Documentary , The Devil's Child , Marion "the devil's child" , Origins , Romanian orphanages , Adoptive parents , Research , Romania , Testimonials , Videos . Bookmark the permalink .
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Hello, my name is Cristian Brauen, born Marian Cristian in 1990. I was adopted from Romania in 1990 and arrived in Switzerland in October 1990.
I read your story
, and I too was born to a mother named Ana and an unknown father.
I am desperately searching for my biological mother. Could you please help me or contact me at my email address: Crissocks69@gmail.com?
Hoping you will read and reply, I send you my best regards.
Cristian Marian Brauen