The Romanian Films of 2016

     In 2015, Radu Jude won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Int`l Film Festival with Aferim!, Corneliu Porumboiu (The Treasure) and Radu Muntean (One Floor Below) released their films at the Cannes Film Festival, and Tudor Giurgiu`s third feature film, Why me?, had its premiere in Berlin. Two notable directorial debuts, visible in the international festivals, were Ana Lungu(Self Portrait of a Dutiful Daughter) and Nicolae Constantin Tănase (The World is Mine); both films were independent productions.
The submissions for the Gopo Awards reach the deadline today, January, the 29th;the nominations will be announced next month. In the meantime, we can take a look at the box-office of last year.
     By the end of 2015 two administrative crises occurred in the world of the  filmmakers. On the one hand three cinemas from the center of Bucharest were closed down – Studio, CinemaPRO and Patria, all of them being very important for the film festivals and the premieres of the Romanian films – following the promulgation of a law that forbids activities with audiences in buildings with seismic risk. As for the film production, the Romanian National Film Center(CNC) didn`t organize any projects contest in 2015. At the beginning of January, CNC placed on its website a document explaining the reasons why a projects contest session could not be organized, and the Minister of Culture, Vlad Alexandrescu stated that the cinema issues will be among the priorities of his mandate.
     According to the existing data regarding the films that were in the production process during the past two years, 2016 awaits the release of more than 20 Romanian feature films.The first one that will be on the screens of Romania starting with the 12th of February is Orizont, directed by Marian Crișan. The film had its world premiere at the TallinnBlack Nights Film Festival and it is a free adaptation of the novel “The Lucky Mill” (“Moara cu noroc”) written by Ioan Slavici and it is also an homage brought to the screen version from 1956, directed by Victor Iliu. Lucian (András Hatházi) and his wife Andra (Rodica Lazăr) try to find their “luck” by accepting to manage a chalet in the Apuseni mountains. Things seem to go well until Lucian realizes that everything that happens in the mountain and at the chalet is controlled by Zoli (Bogdan Zsolt), the head of the illegal logging mafia. Marian Crișan spoke about this adaptation in an interview given to the AaRC team.
     Adrian Sitaru is back with Illegitimate, selectedfor the Berlinale Forum 2016. The Romanian premiereis scheduled for the 18th of March.The film tells the story of a brother (Robi Urs) and a sister (Alina Grigore), who have an incestuous love, of their father, a doctor (Adrian Titieni) and of several denounces. This family has never known any restrictions of morality or law. Last year the director also shot The Fixer, which will also have its premiere this year. You can find out more details about this project in the AaRCfilm report made on the set.
     Ruxandra Zenide already announced the release of her latest film - The Miracle of Tekir – on the 4th of March. The leading role is played by Dorotheea Petre (the actress and the film director also worked together for Ryna10 years ago). The film cinematographer is Hélène Louvart, famous for her collaborations with Agnes Varda, Wim Wenders, Claire Denis or Leos Carax and the editor is Nelly Quettier, known for her working with Leos Carax and Claire Denis. The story revolves around Maria, a healer who is convinced that her pregnancy is the result of a miracle mud. She is accused of witchcraft and she is banished from the village; then she reaches a clinic near Techirghiol lake, where she tries to help a mysterious woman with fertility problems.
     One of the most highly anticipated films of this year is Sieranevada, the first feature film that Cristi Puiu directed after Aurora, that was made 5 years ago. The screenplay focusses on Lary, who goes together with his wife to the memorial meal of commemorating his father who passed away one year before. The entire family gathered and while long waiting for the priest to come, people start talking on different topics, the atmosphere gets tense, the resentments and traumatic memories emerge to the surface. The release date has not been announced yet. The director is already preparing another film: The Manor House, an adaptation after Vladimir Solovyov`s “Tale of the Anti-Christ”. The screenplay follows Aurel Moiş, a Liberal senator and a big landowner, who decides to welcome to his countryside manor house some friends who love hunting. The house fills up with guests, boyars, officers, gypsy musicians; everybody is having a lot of fun, but some troubled reasons bring Moiş to the house that moment. Three of the guests will find out in due time which are these reasons. (Filmreporter.ro)
     Last year, Cristian Mungiu wrapped shooting for Family photos, starring Adrian Titieni, Lia Bugnar and Vlad Ivanov. The premiere is expected to take place this year, probably after the Cannes Int`l Film Festival. Another Mobra Films production is 6.9 on the Richter Scale, directed by Nae Caranfil, a comedy with elements of musical. Tony, an actor, has just been cast to play in a musical and he must overcome his mistrusting the convention of the genre – he cannot sing and dance without reason. Furthermore, he must solve his marriage issues and find a solution for his house with high seismic risk.
     Towards the end of 2015, Radu Jude shot Scarred Hearts, a free adaptation of Max Blecher`s autobiographical works and the homonymous novel. The action is set in 1937 and follows Emanuel, a young man who is in his `20s, who suffers of bone tuberculosis and spends his days in a sanatorium by the Black Sea coast. Falling in love with a patient, he notices the other patients` trying hard to live their lives to the fullest, though their bodies slowly decay. The international release is expected to be this year.
     Rumeno, which became By the Railway (Stradafilm.ro), was shot in 2014 by the film director Cătălin Mitulescu. AaRC team went on the set and made a film report. While in Loverboy the director was interested in the dark side of the society, in this film Mitulescu tells the story of a young man (Radu – Alexandru Potocean) who returns home after one year of working in Italy. His small family made of his wife (Monica – Ada Condeescu) and his son, changed a lot during this time. According to the official site of the Strada Film production, Cătălin Mitulescu already started working on his new film, Heidi.
Strada Film has a few other projects in post-production and in production: That Trip We Took With Dad, the debut in feature film of Anca Miruna Lăzărescu (the director of the short film Silent Waters), which was selected for the Agora Works in Progress (Thessaloniki IFF 2015) and The Lesson, Radu Dragomir`s debut.
     After The Unsaved,the film about two Moldavian young men who earn their living by doing small illegal business and the TV series Shadows, about the underworld of Bucharest, the director Igor Cobileanski prepares the release of the Eastern Affaire, the story of an apparently awkward friendship between Marian and Petro. The feature film is a Romanian(Alien Film)–Lithuanian(Just a Moment) co-production and it was supported by the National Film Centers from both countries. The film was also part of the CentEast Market from the Warsaw Film Festival. A film report made on the set by the AaRC team can be watched here.
     In 2015, Anca Damian had the world premiere of The Magic Mountain, during the Anim`est International Animated Film Festival. In autumn she shot the feature film Perfect health, where her son, Anghel Damian, plays the main part, a young lawyer who tries to find out the truth about the accident which caused his father`s death (Vlad Ivanov). You can find out more details about the film in this AaRCfilm report, which includes interviews with the director and the actor playing the leading role.
     Another premiere of this year is Summer`s Over, directed by Radu Potcoavă and produced by Velvet Moraru (ICON Productions). The action of the film is set in 1999, during the weeks before the total eclipse of the sun that happened in August that year. Summer`s Over tells the story of two kids who frame up a kidnapping without realizing the tragic consequences that these dangerous games may have. The cast includes Ofelia Popii, Șerban Pavlu,Dorian Boguță, Emilian Oprea and Dan Hurduc. The shootings took place last summer in Cernavodă; the Aarc team was there for a film report.
     The Anniversary, directed by Dan Chișu, is the story about the celebration of Radu Maligan (Mircea Albulescu)`s 94th birthday. The family members and the former work colleagues organize a family reunion, which does not unfold as they would have expected. The actors of the film are: Mircea Albulescu, Simona Bondoc, Emanuel Pârvu,Răzvan Vasilescu, Emilia Dobrin, Mădălina Constantin, Frederic Fisbach, Lucian Ifrim, Dana Voicu, Rodica Lazăr, Mircea Andreescu, Papil Panduru, Coca Bloos, Constantin Cojocaru, Mihai Constantin, Marian Râleaand George Remeș. You can find out more details about this project in this  AaRC film report.
     Paul Negoescu directed Two Lottery Tickets, in collaboration with Actoriedefilm.ro, starring Dragoș Bucur,Alexandru Papadopol and Dorian Boguță, alongside students of their acting school. Gabriel Achim also prepares the release of his most recent feature film, The Last Day, which was part of the Agora Works in Progress (Thessaloniki IFF) in 2015 and CentEast Market (Warsaw IFF) in 2015. The director and screenwriter of the HBO series Shadows, Bogdan Mirică, directed the feature film Dogs, and Catrinel Dănăiață shot Double, an Abis Studio production in collaboration with HiFilm Productions.
Radu Mihăileanu directed History of Love based on the homonymous novel written by Nicole Krauss, with the support of the Romanian CNC as well. The total budget of the production was estimated to 20 million dollars, with filming locations in Canada, USA and Romania.
This year will also bring the actor Vlad Zamfirescu`s directorial debutwith The Secret of Happiness, the premiere of #Selfie 2 (directed by Cristina Iacob) and two feature films directed by Iura Luncașu – Sweet Little Lies@Downtown and Tudo.