2013 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: Bogdan Mustata’s Wolf

Better know as the Golden Bear winner for his short in 2008 (A Good Day for a Swim) and more recently, as the scribe for 2011’s Cannes selected Loverboy, it’s in 2013 that I think we’ll be adding a new name to Romanian imports worth keeping tabs on with Bogdan Mustata and his project is called Lupa aka Wolf. A project which has been helped along by the Torino Film Lab, Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award and Cannes International Film Festival’s L’Atelier, production began very late in 2011, so this one is officially in the can and stars newbie actor Mihai Vasilescu in the lead role, but also includes If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle/Loverboy starlet Ada Condeescu.

Gist: Wolf, a 16-year-old teenager (Mihai Vasilescu), lives with his mother in an apartment block in Bucharest. One day, Clara shows up in his neighborhood, deliciously interrupting his adolescent ennui. At the same time, Wolf’s deceased father makes a disturbing comeback. In the grip of grief and infatuation, the boundaries between life and death, and reality and fantasy begin to blur for Wolf. We follow him as he struggles to free himself from this duplicitous existence, to seek a life of his own.

Production Co./Producers: Strada Film, Germany’s Neue Road Movies

Prediction: World Dramatic Competition but could easily be showcased at the Berlin Film Festival or even Cannes, where they love Romanian filmmakers.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available