<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
La
\ncivil, the film directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, scooped the Prix de l’Audace (Prize
\nfor courage) award as part of the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film
\nFestival, held over July 5 and 17, 2021. This year, the festival’s Un certain
\nRegard section returned to its original mission and format, that of presenting
\nthe young and the research cinematography. Or at least that is what the general
\ndelegate of the festival, Thierry Fr\u00e9maux, said, when he announced the section.
\nLa Civil will be distributed by Voodoo Films in Romania. Its premiere is scheduled
\nsometime this fall, as part of the 12th edition of Les Films de
\nCannes \u00e0 Bucarest Festival, to be held over October 22 and 31st. La
\nCivil is a Belgium-Mexico-Romania production, involving Menuetto Film in
\nBelgium and enjoying the support of Eurimages. La Civil has been highly recommended
\nby several well-established filmmakers, such as The Dardenne Brothers known for
\ntheir film production company Films du Fleuve in Belgium or Michel Franco of
\nMexico, the director of The Theorem. The director of photography is Marius
\nPanduru, known among other things, for Policeman, Adjective, Closer to the
\nMoon, Aferim! and If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle .<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
La
\ncivil is Teodora Ana Mihai’s first feature film. Teodora was born in
\nBucharest, in 1981. In 1989 Teodora Ana Mihai relocated to Belgium, together
\nwith her parents. When she was in high school in San Francisco, California
\nTeodora discovered her passion for cinematography. She pursued a study
\nprogramme with the Film Academy in New York. She began working as a screenplay
\nwriter in Belgium, then she was assistant director. La Civil tells the story
\nof Cielo, a Mexican mother who is searching for her daughter who was kidnaped
\nby the members of a drug cartel. The authorities fail to help her so Cielo
\ndecides to go on her own completely. Gradually, Cielo turns from a house wife
\ninto a vengeful activist. La Civil is based on true facts. The film is the outcome
\nof many years of research Teodora Ana Mihai did jointly with Mexican writer Habacuc
\nAntonio de Rosario. Initially, when she began her research, Teodora Ana Mihai had
\nset for herself the task of making a documentary.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Teodora Ana Mihai:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have been familiar with Mexico ever since I was a child, and the Mexico
\nI used to know back then was completely different from today’s country. You
\nwere quite safe as you were driving your car, you could go places you were safe
\nas a tourist as well. Since 2006, when president Felipe Calder\u00f3n declared war on
\ndrugs, more than 60.000 people went missing, and that political decision had
\nand still has a strong impact. As I’ve said before, there were a couple of
\nregions left where you could go as a tourist, there were places where you got
\ngreater safety, but mainly in the northern regions, close to the US border, you
\ncould be in trouble. And as we speak, such a situation is spread rather widely
\nacross several Mexican states. That is exactly why we picked such a topic,
\nbecause there is an impending need for a debate on the present situation in
\nMexico. It is in no way okay to get out of your house in the morning, going to
\nwork or to school, and go missing, with nobody knowing what happened. I
\nwondered what it was like to be an adolescent against such a backdrop, what it
\nwas like to be a parent, what it means to live in an insecure society.
\nInitially, in 2015, when, jointly with Habacuc Antonio de Rosario, I began my
\ndocumentation, the idea was for us to speak with as many families as possible,
\nof the victims of drug cartels. It took us two and a half years to speak with
\nvery many people tackling that scourge, in the event of making a documentary.
\nWe eventually gave up on that idea, as our documentary would have presented
\nillegal circumstances, sensitive statements, and we did not want to jeopardize
\nanybody.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Teodora
\nAna Mihai and Habacuc Antonio de Rosario gave up on the idea of making a
\ndocumentary film altogether. Instead, they decided to tell the story of Miriam
\nRodr\u00edguez Mart\u00ednez, a woman who was shot dead right in front of her house after
\nshe found her daughter’s kidnappers and murderers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Teodora Ana Mihai:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During
\nthe investigation, I met Miriam Rodr\u00edguez Mart\u00ednez, about whom much has been
\nwritten as of late, there even was an article in the New York Times, about her activity,
\nbut that occurred four years after she died, unfortunately. We had the chance
\nto meet her and talk to her, that is how the film’s main character was born,
\nCielo, the mother of the girl who was seized and murdered by a drug cartel. After
\nseveral failed attempts to find help from the authorities, she tried to do
\nthings all by herself, she went on her own completely. As I was saying, we did
\nlots of interviews, and my idea, initially, was to write the story from a
\nteenager boy or a teenager girl’s point of view, but I met Miriam Rodr\u00edguez
\nMart\u00ednez, who had found out we were doing our investigation in the region, on
\nthe issue, and told us what happened to her.
\nHer story prompted me to make my decision, the view point in our film
\nwill be a mother’s viewpoint. The film, in fact, is also a tribute we paid to
\nher and to all the families who told us what happened to them. Unfortunately,
\nwe heard lots of strong and tragical stories about that.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nFlanders Audiovisual Fund was the main financier of La Civil. The production
\nalso enjoyed the joint support of Belgium’s Cinematography and Audiovisual
\nCentre, Romania’s national Cinematography Centre and Eurimages, European
\nCinema Support Fund. The filming took place over November and December 2020 in Durango,
\nMexico, at the time of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was ongoing. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
(Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
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Teodora Ana Mihai and her audacious prize in Cannes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":163437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44685],"tags":[34505,35344,30692,29241,39800,43395],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-163436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-of-culture","tag-award","tag-documentary","tag-festival","tag-film","tag-interviews","tag-story"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n