“The New Year That Never Came”, a multi-award winning film

The 19th edition of the Gopo Awards Gala celebrated the performances of Romanian cinema in the previous year.

Corina Sabău, 17.05.2025, 13:58

“The New Year That Never Came”, written, directed and produced by Bogdan Mureșanu was the big winner of the evening, receiving the trophy for Best Film. The same film won 9 other trophies, including the award for “Best Actress in a Lead Role” awarded to Nicoleta Hâncu, the Award for “Best Actor in a Lead Role” won by Adrian Văncică, the Award for “Best Direction”, “Best Screenplay” and “Best Debut Film”, obtained by Bogdan Mureșanu. In turn, Iulia and Victor Fulicea won the Award for Best Sets.

“The New Year That Never Came” was also awarded in the categories “Best Editing” (Vanja Kovačević and Mircea Lăcătuș), “Best Sound” (Sebastian Zsemlye), “Best Makeup” and “Best Hairstyle” (Iulia Roșeanu and Domnica Bodogan). The tragicomedy directed by Bogdan Mureșanu follows the destinies of six characters who intersect around the time of the fall of communism, characters who search for normality and meaning in a world marked by fear and absurdity. Bogdan Mureșanu told us about his need to return to the time of the Revolution of December 1989: “First of all, I chose this story because I lived a little bit during that period and it remained strong in my mind. Then, because my family was very affected by communism. I won’t go into too many biographical details, but both my grandparents and my father suffered. Another reason why I chose this story is that on the evening of December 20, 1989, I was at the University with my mother. I was 15 years old at the time of the Revolution and my mother took me and my sister and we were there, at the University, where I saw a lot of people. It was something incredible, I will never forget that image. It was dark and a silent crowd, tens of thousands of people, who were about to burst out. And there’s something else, I think that 35 years after the Revolution we can also afford to make films like this, which are slightly more detached, films with black humor, close to tragicomedy, that take you through all kinds of emotions. On such a discussed subject as the 1989 Revolution, I wanted to do something new, I wanted to come up with my own personal way of seeing things.”

In “The New Year That never Came”, we meet again the actress Emilia Dobrin, who plays the role of Margareta Dincă. Her house, located in the Uranus neighborhood, is about to be demolished to build a new block of flats. It is actually one of the last houses left undemolished and Margareta has the misfortune of having to leave her home very shortly before the Revolution. Emilia Dobrin spoke to RRI about her collaboration with director Bogdan Mureșanu and about her role in the film: “I knew similar dramatic stories. People who were evicted from their homes without notice, old people, families, everyone was forced to leave their homes and move wherever the communists with positions dictated to them. Margareta’s whole life, my character, was tied to this house, she had lived there with her family, with her children, there she had everything and she couldn’t see herself suddenly moving to a matchbox, thrown away somewhere, on the outskirts of Bucharest. So for me it was a painful reunion with those times, but at the same time it was also a kind of exorcism, because I experienced that unfortunate period in Romanian history firsthand.”

“The New Year That Came” brought Andrei Miercure his first lead role in a feature film. Laurențiu Silvestru, the character he plays, is a young man who tries to save himself from a totalitarian regime by choosing to cross the border illegally. We talked to Andrei Miercure about the challenges this role brought him: “Not having lived during the communist era, I looked for any documentary sources, I asked my family, my friends, what that period was like. And I was told quite a few stories from that period. Of course, I watched documentaries, read books and listened to music from that period because it helped me connect. And I think what helped me the most in building this character is that I tried to get closer to Laurențiu and become friends with him. I tried to see what his biggest frustrations and desires are, what are the needs he has and wants to solve. I think that youth and the enthusiasm characteristic of age can push him towards a rather reckless gesture. Somehow I brought a quite personal part of myself to Laurențiu, and especially a certain type of insecurity, of questioning the decision he made.”
The feature film “The New Year That Never Came” written, directed and produced by Bogdan Mureșanu, has recently reached cinemas in France and Belgium, after the Cinema Caravan dedicated to promoting the film passed through several cities in Romania. (EE)