Before the Siren
Concept key art · not a still from the film
Sometimes the hardest thing is asking for help before the choice is no longer yours.
“Why didn't you call the ambulance again?”
“I don't know.”
The conversation between father and daughter that opens the film.
After surviving pancreatic necrosis, repeated hospitalizations and COVID-19, Pavel Sidorenco returns to his own medical history to understand why people keep telling themselves “I'll wait a little longer” — and whether this time he can seek help before another crisis.
- Genre
- Author documentary
- Format
- Feature documentary
- Planned running time
- ≈ 52 minutes
- Country
- Republic of Moldova
- Languages
- Russian · Romanian · English subtitles planned
- Status
- In production / pre-production
- Production
- PRODEZVOLT S.R.L. / BizSamurai Production
- Director
- Ecaterina Sidorenco
- Writer · Producer
- Pavel Sidorenco
- Director of Photography
- Stepan Frunze
- International title
- BEFORE THE SIREN
On 12 September, Pavel feels unwell again. He decides: if it gets worse, he'll call an ambulance.
The next day his daughter asks a simple question: “Why didn't you call again?”
His answer — “I don't know” — takes him back to 2003, when the ambulance came four times and three times he refused to be hospitalized.
But 2003 was not the last warning.
Together with doctors, his daughters and people who knew him in different years, Pavel tests his own memory — and his habit of treating patience as a form of control.
This is not a film about a man who defeated an illness.
It is a story about a small action that has to happen before the crisis.
01 · WAIT
“I'll wait a little longer”
About a man used to thinking of patience as strength.
02 · MEMORY
“Is that really how it was?”
Doctors are given the right to correct the author's memory. Even a story you lived yourself becomes, over time, a version.
03 · ORDINARY LIFE
“What is all this for?”
Work. The road. The shop. Coffee. Daughters. Home. What seems ordinary — until there is a risk of losing it.
The film is shot observationally.
We do not reconstruct attacks, do not ask the protagonist to perform pain, and do not stage the events of 2003 or 2021.
The past exists through memory, real documents, space, sound — and people who have the right to tell the author: “You remember it differently.”
- doors
- road
- glass
- hands
- phone
- corridor
- car
- silence
Visual development / previsThe film is not built around a single explanation. People who were close to Pavel at different points in his life are allowed to remember differently, challenge his version and tell their part of the story.
Pavel Sidorenco
Writer · Producer · Protagonist
Ecaterina Sidorenco
Director · Pavel’s daughter · family perspective
Anastasia Sidorenco
Pavel’s daughter · family perspective
Cornelia Guțu-Bahov
Head of the 2nd Intensive Care Unit, Sfânta Treime Hospital
Prof. Gheorghe Anghelic
Professor · surgeon
Anastasia Lupu
District physician, Polyclinic No. 5
Mihail Guleac
Ambulance paramedic
Rodion Uzun
Kinetotherapist, highest qualification category
Project in production
Story development is complete. The film is in pre-production, institutional coordination and filming preparation.
Planned premiere: PORT MALL, Chișinău.
Festival master and international festival strategy are targeted for 2027.
- Development & researchDone
- Story developmentDoneongoing editorial refinement
- Pre-productionActive
- Institutional coordinationActive
- Principal photographyUpcoming
- EditingUpcoming
- PremiereUpcomingplanned at PORT MALL, Chișinău
- Festival masterUpcoming2027 target
- Festival submissionsUpcomingplanned for 2027
We are approaching state institutions and medical organizations for institutional support and filming access. Below is the current status of these requests. Confirmed support is published separately, under “With the support of”.
Ministerul Sănătății al Republicii MoldovaRequest sent
Ministerul Culturii al Republicii MoldovaRequest sent
Inspectoratul General al PolițieiRequest sent
Primăria Municipiului ChișinăuRequest sent
IMSP AMT Buiucani / Centrul Medicilor de Familie nr. 5In coordination
IMSP SCM „Sfânta Treime”In coordination
For a long time I thought this story was about how I was once saved.
Now it seems to me it is about something else.
Why can a person who already knows the cost of waiting still tell himself: “I'll put up with it a little longer”?
I don't want to make a film about illness, and I don't want to prove that one day I understood everything.
I'm more interested in testing my own memory, my own decisions, and one very simple question:
can I, this time, do something earlier?
Writer · Producer · Protagonist
Pavel SidorencoDirector
Ecaterina SidorencoDirector of Photography
Stepan Frunze
Visual development / previs
Visual development / previs
Visual development / previsImages on this page are visual development (previs) — not frames from the film and not documentary material.
Project in production
We are open to festival, institutional and professional dialogue around the film.