Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #137. The Father Who Moved Mountains – Daniel Sandu

Published on December 30, 2019

The Father Who Moved Mountains

Romania’s Daniel Sandu finds his sophomore film The Father Who Moved Mountains produced by Cristian Mungiu’s Mobra Films, which won the Arte International prize at Les Arcs back in 2016 and could potentially be ready to premiere in 2020. Previously, Sandu directed his 2017 debut One Step Behind the Seraphim, which won Best Screenplay at the 2018 Bucharest International Film Festival. His 2014 short film “Cai putere” premiered in Locarno.

Gist: Mircea, a retired intelligence officer in his late fifties, discovers his son from a previous marriage has gone missing in the mountains. He travels to the location hoping to locate his son, eventually putting his own search team together. Gradually, this leads to conflict with the local authorities.

Release Date/Prediction: Sandu is set to shoot in January 2020 so look for the filmmaker to pop at Locarno or somewhere else in the fall festival circuit.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.