Romanian New Wave Shores Up at the 63rd Edition of Locarno Film Fest

Locarno’s new artistic director Olivier Pere is certainly sticking to some of the trends he helped support while at Cannes, this year’s Locarno’s slate features a record number for Romanian films than in the previous editions. The 63rd Festival del Film Locarno 2010 will see first time feature film works from Marian Crișan (Morgen) and Bogdan George Apetri’s “Periferic” (“Outbound”) – both will compete in The “Concorso internazionale” (International Competition), among other World of International premieres of 18 feature films from all over the globe.

The “Concorso Cineasti del presente” (Filmmakers of the Present Competition) hosts a 64 minute-long movie, directed by Ana Lungu and Ana Szel – “The Belly of the Whale” (“Burta balenei “– original title). Out of Competition, in the Piazza Grande, will be screened Eran Riklis’ “The Mission of the Human Resource Manager” – a France/Germany/Israel/Romania co-production. Add to that, two older short-films of Cristi Puiu and Adrian Sitaru were included in the “Pardi di domani” competition for Swiss and international short films, which this year celebrates its 20th birthday, and also offers an anthology of the best short films discovered at Locarno. 

Crișan’s “Morgen” (see the funny trailer above) tells the story of a family that lives in an isolated farm on the Romanian-Hungarian border. Days pass the same. Nelu, a supermarket security guard, just likes to fish and Florica works at the bakery, in the nearby town. But, one day, Nelu will fish something different… an illegal Kurdish immigrant and he has to decide whether to help him pass the border or not. The screenplay (written by Crișan as well) grabbed the most points in the Romanian National Centre of Cinema (CNC) contest, which brought almost 270.000 euro to film’s 890.000 euro budget.

The cast includes Yalcin Yilmaz and Andras Hathazi while the production is handled by Mandragora (Romania), Slot Machine (France) and Katapult Film (Hungary). Morgen will be released in Romania during this autumn through Mandragora Movies. The international sales will be handled by French company Les Films de Losange.

The other Romanian movie included in the International Competition is Bogdan George Apetri’s “Periferic” (initially, its English title was “Outskirts”, but this was changed into “Outbound”). The film is based on a story by Cristian Mungiu and Ioana Uricaru, while the screenplay was written by Apetri along with Tudor Voican. Shot last summer, in Bucharest, “Periferic” follows the story of a young woman, Matilda, who, after two years spent in prison, is granted a 24-hour temporary release. But she doesn’t plan to return there. Her goal is to flee the country and start a new life. Only, by the end of the day, she must overcome her troubled past.

The film stars Ana Ularu, Mimi Brănescu, Andi Vasluianu and Ana Flora; the production companies are Saga Film (Romania) and Aichholzer Filmproduktion (Austria). 270.000 euro from its entire budget (approximately 720.000 euro) came from Romanian National Centre of Cinema (CNC), after Apetri’s screenplay won the maximum points back in 2007.

I should add that, “The Belly of the Whale” – Ana Lungu and Ana Szel feature debut was included in the “Filmmakers of the Present” competition. Shot in HDV and produced by Periscop Pictures and Umbrella Films, “Burta balenei”/”The Belly of the Whale” is based mostly on improvisation, starting with the moment when a young girl loses her mobile phone, which is why she can’t find out if the man, who she had an adventure with the night before, would call her or not. The cast includes friends of the two directors, while the main character is played by Ana Szel herself.