Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest

Romanian productions screened as part of the Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest festival

Corina Sabău, 09.11.2019, 14:00

The 10th edition of the Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest festival brought the most eagerly-awaited productions to Bucharest, shortlisted for the Cannes Film festival. But apart from that, this year, Romanian films were premiered as part of the festival, while other Romanian productions were previewed. The festival also made possible encounters with some of the filmmakers as well as master-classes.

A gala preview was staged for no less than eight Romanian productions. Catalin Mitulescu is a Palme D’Or Laureate for the best short reel ‘Traffic’. Mitulescu’s feature film « How I spent the end of the world » scooped the jury’s Un Certain Regard Special prize. For the same production, Dorotheea Petre won the Best Actress Award in the aforementioned category. Catalin Mitulescu has returned to the world of filmmaking with his new production, “Heidi”, which has been recently screened as part of the competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival. “The man who wanted to be free” is a documentary directed by Mihai Mincan and George Chiper — Lillemark. It tells the tale of a young rebel who decided to live a freeman’s live during the communist years, in a country torn by poverty and terror. Serban Georgescu’s “The Diary of the Escu Family”, is another documentary that comes up with an emphatically personal account of individual, apparently trifling episodes actually heralding the great events we have all been part of, in the 100 years since the Great Union has been sealed, in 1918. Ivana Mladenovic is the director and performer of the lead part in her documentary “Ivana the terrible”. Ivana Mladenovic also co-authored the screenplay for her production that scooped the Jury’s Special prize in the Locarno Festival’s Cineasti del Presente section. The film is an unconventional account of people and places, it speaks about the sense of belonging and that strong feeling of longing. It is a tale told in humour and tenderness.

Ivana Mladenovic :

”In ‘Soldiers. A tale from Ferentari’ I turned Adrian Schiop’s book into a film, I also picked Adrian Schiop to play the lead part. In ‘Ivana the Terrible’ I decided to go a little bit further in that I have used my own experience for the film, my own story, obviously fictionalizing it, but choosing to have friends and people in my family play their own parts. I opted for that formula which somehow turns the film into a comedy, a formula which at once compels you to come out in the open as oftentimes, it seems to me we tend to take ourselves way too seriously. ‘Ivana the Terrible’ was difficult to make, since it is a film which starts off from my own experience, it starts off from episodes that occurred in reality and which were not quite pleasant. To put it briefly, it is about a moment of crisis which occurred two years ago, the film speaks about staying healthy, mentally as well as physically, it speaks about the relationship between two countries, about a girl who chose to leave for Romania and ended up returning to Serbia, it speaks about generation clash. Making a film about all that, it is not so simple, it is not easy to put all that into a film.”

Actor Vlad Ivanov and filmmaker Adi Voicu were Romania’s representatives at this year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival. They also travelled around the country attending several editions of the Les Film des Cannes a Bucarest Festival. Adi Voicu travelled to Cluj, Brasov and Suceava with his short feature film, The Last Journey to the Sea, which this year was shortlisted for Festival’s La Semaine de la Critique section. ‘The Last Journey to the sea’ is Adi Voicu’s second short feature film, after The Mist, a production that scooped awards in Angers and Sankt Petersburg. The plot is set in a compartment of a train rolling towards the seaside. The seven passengers strike up a conversation, but a moment comes when some sort of suspicion causes things to get out of hand. Members of the cast for the short fiction film, ‘The Last Journey to the sea’ are the well-known poet Angela Marcovici (Marinescu), Ana Ciontea, Cristina Juncu, Silviu Debu, Turkish actor Salih Yildirim, Alina Vior. Two of the actors on the cast, Ana Ciontea and Silviu Debu, spoke about their work with director Adi Voicu.

Ana Ciontea:

”Being on the cast for ‘The Last Journey to the Sea’ was a very pleasant experience, for me, the screenplay really got me, even though Adi made lots of changes along the way. Adi was so very particular about details and that’s what also got me, from the very beginning. And, as we were rehearsing, that persuaded me it would be a very good movie. That’s what moved me and also helped me a lot.”

Silviu Debu:

”The movie somehow depicts the world we live in. In a train compartment, six people meet, they are of various ages, religious persuasions and social categories. Unfortunately, for one of the characters, it really is the last journey. It somehow is a beautiful metaphor, covering the world we live in. That’s what I liked a lot about it, the fact that the film captures our world; furthermore, from the very first sessions we had with Adi Voicu I noticed he was a director who knew what he was doing, and that fuelled a great deal of confidence, so for me, it was an outright yes when I was asked if I accepted the part.”

“Marie, Queen of Romania”, a film by Alexis Sweet Cahill, scooped the public’s award at the end of the 10th edition of the Les Film de Cannes a Bucarest Festival. Based on a true story, the film places Queen Marie center-stage and will be in theaters beginning November 8, 2019.

(Translated by Eugen Nasta)