Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #31. Corneliu Porumboiu’s Gomera

Gomera

A key member of the Romanian New Wave, Corneliu Porumboiu remains a tad obscured by the likes of fellow countrymen Cristian Mungiu and Cristi Puiu despite having amassed a coterie of awards and festival distinction. Porumboiu broke out in 2006 with his debut 12:08 East of Bucharest (read our interview with him) which premiered in Cannes out of Director’s Fortnight and snagged him the Camera d’Or. He returned to Cannes in 2009 with Police, Adjective and won the top prize out of Un Certain Regard for a film which is widely regarded as a seminal part of the Romanian canon. In 2013, he competed in Locarno with When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, and then returned to Un Certain Regard in 2015 with black comedy The Treasure (which also picked up a prize). His latest, Gomera, reunites him with well-known Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov as a policeman intent on freeing a crooked businessman from a prison on Gomera, an island in the Canaries. However, he must first learn the difficult local dialect, a language which includes hissing and spitting.

Release Date/Prediction: The project was announced as part of MK2’s slate during Cannes of 2017, and Porumboiu has also been awarded funding from Eurimages. With filming taking place in Singapore and on Gomera, this should be his first production outside of Romania. Considering the director’s history with Cannes, he could return here in 2018, though the main comp may still elude him. A return to Locarno, or perhaps a chance at competition in Venice or even TIFF’s Platform program could be possible.