First Resting Place for Cornel Gheorghita’s ‘Europolis’ is the Montreal World Film Festival

After breaking out with documentary films such as “Fanfaron, Fanfaron” and “Mascarade” and a few shorts – “Epava” (The Wreck), “Ziua incepe noaptea” (The day starts during the night), “Say Joe” – Cornel Gheorghiță finished his first feature film: Europolis, which was selected for the Montreal World Film Festival, where it will compete in the First Films World Competition.

“I’ve been asked many times to include the film into a genre: fantastic drama? a legend? a ballad? a folkloric myth? a fairy tale? The only thing I can say is that it’s fiction. Against today’s author cinema trending, against this hyper-realistic current, Europolis doesn’t wish to copy reality; the reality is just a starting point for a imaginative foray in human’s soul”, declared the director.

Gheorghiță’s film concentrates on Magdalena and her son named Nae. They live in a small port of Sulina, in East Romania which is the setting of when their lives are disrupted: a telegram arrives telling them that Magdalena’s brother – Luca has died. Buried in a cemetery situated at the periphery of the village, the wire was sent by Luca’s executer asking Nae and his mother to go to France to make arrangements. One of the deceased’s last wishes was to be buried in the cemetery of his home town in Sulina, Romania, located on the coast of the Black Sea, on the other side of the continent. When the two Romanians get to the deceased’s house on the Atlantic coast, they meet a shaman, Ata, who was Luca’s best friend. Ata tells them that Luca’s fortune was lost and the only thing left is an unusual coffin. Luca’s death influences their return trip to Romania more than they could imagine.

With regards to the narrative, the filmmaker added that the film is an Eastern Balcanic, with a touch of the fantastic universe in Mircea Eliade‘s prose. The film’s leads are Adriana Trandafir and Áron Dimény who are supported by Elena Popa, Dorin Andone, Joseph Otteno, Petrică Nicolae, Adina Cartianu and Ionela Nedelea.

Gheorghiță has a dual Romanian-French citizenship and has been a teacher at Toulouse II University (Ecole Supérieure d’Audiovisuel) for two decades and since 2001, he also teaches at Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques.
Europolis has won the HBO/TIFF 2005 screenplay contest for the best feature script. The screenplay was written by Gheorghiţă, Adina Dulcu, Loïc Balarac and the producers are Gheorghiță srl (Romania) and Cinepay & Tarafilms (France). This project is also supported by National Ceter of Cinematography (CNC), Eurimages, Romanian Society of Radio System (SRR), Région Midi-Pyrénées, Région Poitou-Charentes, Dépt. de la Charente Maritime and ESAV Toulouse (France). The Romanian release is planned for this November.