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HOLY WEEK

by Andrei Cohn

synopsis

Leiba lives with his wife Sura and their son Eli in a village located within a Romanian landscape so beautiful it could be a painting. The Jewish family runs the village inn, a meeting point for travellers and the village community at the end of the 19th century. At first glance, the people that eat and drink here are all alike. This is where they belong. But their table conversations reveal prejudices and racist sentiments. A little derision here, some underlying envy there, poisonous attributions. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least for now. Those who are close always tease each other. Holy Week is a free adaptation of the 1889 novella “An Easter Torch” by Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale. For this, Andrei Cohn crafts a world illuminated by considerable cinematic and psychological nuance. His characters seem to inhabit this world as if they were living today, like the people right next door, caught up in their own lives. Even when the fuse of anti-Semitism has already been lit, Leiba and his wife make plans, argue or giggle with joy. Between Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, a bomb will explode.

international title: Holy Week
original title: Săptămâna Mare
working title: Gefilte Fish
country: Romania, Switzerland
sales agent: Shellac
year: 2024
genre: fiction
directed by: Andrei Cohn
film run: 133'
release date: FR 10/04/2024
screenplay: Andrei Cohn
cast: Doru Bem, Nicoleta Lefter, Ciprian Chiricheș, Mario Gheorghe Dinu, Ana Cioneta
cinematography by: Andrei Butică
film editing: Andrei Iancu, Dana Bunescu
art director: Cristian Niculescu
costumes designer: Viorica Petrovici
producer: Anca Puiu
co-producer: Dan Wechsler
executive producer: Bogdan Zarnoianu
production: Mandragora, Bord Cadre films
distributor: Shellac Distribution

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