Guardians of the Ruins
Guardians of the Ruins explores abandoned industrial sites and war-damaged buildings through the lives of people who inhabit, guard, or appropriate them. The film follows a night watchman whose workplace has become his refuge and home, a Roma family living illegally inside a ruined complex before being forcibly removed, and artists who reclaim abandoned factories as cultural spaces. These ruins stand as monuments to economic collapse, political neglect, and social invisibility, while simultaneously offering shelter, freedom, or creative rebirth. The film moves from decay and nostalgia toward an optimistic vision of renewal, questioning how we treat spaces that are no longer useful and what responsibility we have toward both the ruins and the people living within them.