| Mărculești | |
| Settlement Type: | Town |
| Pushpin Map: | Moldova |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Moldova |
| Subdivision Type2: | District |
| Subdivision Name2: | Florești District |
| Leader Party: | PCRM[1] |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Ion Vîrlan |
| Area Total Km2: | 5 |
| Coordinates: | 47.8686°N 28.2475°W |
| Population Total: | 1,396 |
| Elevation M: | 90 |
| Population As Of: | 2014 |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Timezone1: | EET |
| Utc Offset1: | +2 |
| Timezone1 Dst: | EEST |
| Utc Offset1 Dst: | +3 |
Mărculești (in Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan pronounced as /mərkuˈleʃtʲ/) is a city in Florești District, in northern Moldova, with a population of 2,081 at the 2004 census. The city was once the site of a Jewish agricultural and mercantile colony until its destruction in the Holocaust.[3]
Filmmaker Matthew Mishory's 2015 documentary Absent was filmed in Mărculești, the site of a horrible atrocity in 1941 in which all of the village's Jews were massacred by the Romanian army.[4] The film introduces the current residents of Mărculești, some of who seem to be unaware (or unwilling to discuss) what happened.[5] Mishory's own grandparents lived in the village, escaping to Israel just before the start of the Holocaust. In an interview with Tablet, Mishory discussed the complex emotions of filming there: "The history of Mărculești and the Holocaust pose impossible intellectual and theological questions. All I can say is that my feelings about what happened in Mărculești are complicated. I remain a practicing Jew. And I also have serious doubts about human nature. I'm angry that people who live overlooking a killing field lie about their history. But I also have a lot of empathy for the current residents of the village and their difficult circumstances".[6] The film had its world premiere at the Astra Film Festival in Sibiu, Romania[7] and led to efforts to preserve Mărculești's abandoned Jewish cemetery.