We first became aware of Romanian-born filmmaker Teodora Ana Mihai through her 2021 film La Civil, which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and earned a specially created Prize of Courage. Blending documentary and fiction, she most recently explored globalization and the plight of Romanian migrants in her second fiction feature, IFFR preemed Traffic (Reostat) a fact-based story penned by Cristian Mungiu and starring Anamaria Vartolomei. Now, with her third feature, she turns her lens on another true story. Known as the Heysel Stadium disaster which took place on the 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of the 1985 European Cup final. Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Teodora Ana Mihai’s Heysel 85.
Back in October of 2023, Hans Herbots, stood aside from directing the project (due to scheduling conflicts) handing the reigns to Teodora Ana Mihai. Once Traffic (2024) was pushed out, the filmmaker began prepping what would be her fourth feature (third fiction). The film was shot in the Dutch, French, English and Italia languages.
Co-written by Lode Desmet, Isabelle Darras and Mihai, when 39 people get killed before the start of the European Cup Finals at the Brussels Heysel stadium in 1985, the daughter of the mayor of Brussels and a journalist with Italian roots are torn between their professional assignment, family concerns and human nature itself.
The cast includes Violet Braeckman, Matteo Simoni, Josse De Pauw, Fabrizio Rongione, Ben Segers, Paolo Calabresi and Bobby Schofield.
Teodora Ana Mihai reteams with her La Civil producer Hans Everaert of the production co. Menuetto. She also re-teams with cinematographer Marius Panduru – who most recent work includes Radu Jude’s outings of Kontinental ’25 and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Other producers include Bo De Group for Menuetto, in co-production with Delphine Tomson and Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne Les Films du Fleuve, Frans Van Gestel for Topkapi and Anette Unger for Leitwolf.
Production took place in Brussels and Antwerp in March and April of this year. So this should be aiming for a Berlinale or Cannes 2026 launch.
