Something Familiar

While helping a woman search for her birth mother, a filmmaker is drawn into her own family history, uncovering a dark cloud that has long hung over its women. Through filmmaking as both inquiry and a gesture of care, she explores whether self-authorship can rewrite inherited family narratives.

Dr Rachel Taparjan

Dr Rachel Taparjan is a British Romanian filmmaker and academic. She lives in the north east of England and is a senior lecturer in social work at Teesside University. She has directed documentary short films selected for Sheffield DocFest, the East End Film Festival, and SEE Film Festival. She is a member of the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE). Her debut feature documentary Something Familiar has received development funding from the British Film Institute, the Romanian National Film Fund, and Creative Europe MEDIA. She was selected for the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator programme 2022 and subsequently awarded the Cineuropa Marketing award. Something Familiar was also selected as one of the five finalists for Whickers 2024 and Presented at Cannes Docs 2025 as part of the CIRCLE Showcase of Docs-inProgress where she won the Chicken & Egg Vision Award. Something Familiar will celebrate its world premiere in the International Main Competition at CPH:DOX 2026.

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