The village of Tichilesti is in a remote area of easternmost Romania, in the in a hidden forest near the Danube Delta it is home to what is thought to be Europe's last remaining leprosy colony. The establishment has an over 100 years long history, where all the leprosy affected people from all regions of Romania and neighbouring countries had been isolated. Most inhabitants had spent their entire life in Tichilesti, hidden from the eyes of the outside world, a society that had stigmatized and marginalized them mostly because of fear. During the decades of the Ceausescu dictatorship, the colony remained a carefully guarded secret of communist Romania, a blemish of the "communist Eden".
"The Colony" presents the life of the last residents, who were taking care of by the devoted Dr Rasvan Alexa Vasiliu, the one who opened the possibility for their social integration and rehabilitation.
Doctor Rasvan Alexe Vasiliu has dedicated his life to caring for Hansen’s disease patients for over two and a half decades. Thanks to his devotion, today the leprosy hospital is a modern medical unit meeting European standards. Thanks to the effective treatment, at present, Tichilesti residents can move freely in the society of the healthy. Grigore "Grișa" Grigorov has also come from the Delta, from the area where the Danube flows into the sea. He trained to become a carpenter, and finished trade school while keeping the ailment already afflicting him a secret. Stela Mitulescu, Dumitru Ifemia, Vasile Olescu, Romică Nedelcu, Tutu Aurelian and "Anonymous"—they have also been living in Tichilesti most of their life. The residents of the colony used to get married, have children. It was here that Domnica Mișcov was born from infected parents. She has lived her whole life here and never wanted to leave. Shot in an observational/participative style, the documentary took over ten years to film, amassing hundreds of hours of footage, including archival footage and deep interviews with the last residents and medical staff of the colony. It follows the story of the long-term residents, their struggles to reintegrate in the outside world. Will they be able to adapt to a relative normal life and will they ever be able to successfully join the world of the "healthy"?
"The Colony" is the only audiovisual document that preserves the history of leprosy in Romania, the memories of the last residents of Tichilesti and of those who had already left it.