Frontline

Frontline is a documentary study of the invisible nighttime life in Chișinău, Moldova. In 2021, Mihail Calarașan embedded with the city’s emergency services — police, ambulances, and the 112 dispatch — to record the reality behind the capital's perceived

Frontline

The project ended in 2021, but the reflex remains. I still turn my head every time I hear the siren of an ambulance or a police car. Sometimes I spot familiar license plates in the Chișinău traffic — a residual habit from a time spent documenting the city’s nighttime frequency.

There were three of us — me, Roma, and Nastya. Cameras, microphones, body cams, action cams, branded vests, and a pack of candy to make it through the night without collapsing from exhaustion. We entered this project wanting to tell the untold stories of people who go out every day to serve — risking their lives, or at least their nerves. We thought this project would change how others see these professions. In the end, it changed us first.

Chișinău is a calm city. You rarely see shootouts or car chases here, but at night, behind closed doors, things happen that almost never make the news. Nighttime Chișinău is violence hidden behind a neighbor’s keyhole, and the exhaustion of those who arrive first when something goes wrong. When what you’ve seen piles up to a critical mass, it becomes a weight that is hard to carry.