Romanian director
Cristi Puiu has recently received the 2017 Central European Initiative Award
for his film Sieranevada, at the 28th edition of the
Trieste International Film Festival. The trophy has been awarded to a
cinematographer capable of interpreting
contemporary European reality and cross-culture dialogue, for the irony with
which he presents the realities of present-day Romania, in his entire work, the
organisers say. Cristi Puiu was the honorary guest of the festival, alongside
the Russian director Vitaly Mansky.
Another prize in Trieste
went to the Romanian director Adrian Silişteanu, who ran in the competition
with the short film Written/Unwritten.
Filmed
in a digital format, in 42 days, and having a budget of over 1.4 million Euros,
Sieranevada
is Cristian Puiu’s forth feature film. It describes the reunion of a family,
meeting in a small apartment to celebrate the 40-day memorial of their deceased
father, who is however hardly ever mentioned by the family members. The director actually confessed
that the whole idea of the film emerged from his personal experience, after he
attended his father’s memorial meal. It was not the first such memorial meal
that I attended, because my grandparents and other significant people in my
life had passed away, but it was for the first time that I was overwhelmed by
the situation. When this happens to others, you
look at the situation considerately. When it happens to you, you don’t
understand anything, Cristi Puiu said.
One
of the best films in Romanian cinematography by far, boasting impressive
photography and outstanding lifelike and sharp dialogues, Sieranevada was filmed
exclusively in an apartment, except for two outdoor scenes. To render the film
authentic, Cristi Puiu chose an apartment in a block of flats in Bucharest,
which in reality had been inhabited by an old man who had passed away shortly
before the shooting, a film aficionado, as his descendents later told
reporters.
If Sieranevada enjoys
great success in Europe, across the ocean, in the US, another Romanian
film-maker has entered the race for the Oscars, to be awarded in February. Ada
Solomon is the co-producer of a feature film titled Toni Erdmann, directed by the German Maren Ade,
running in the best foreign film category. Filmed in Romania for the most
part, Toni Erdmann tells the story of an eccentric father, a
retired teacher of music, always making jokes, who decides to pay a surprise
visit to his daughter, an extremely determined, career-oriented woman, who is
involved in an important project developed by a Bucharest-based company.