24/03/2015 - The director's third feature will be shot next summer

Florin Şerban, whose If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ada Condeescu
film profile] won the Jury Grand Prix and the Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2010 Berlinale, is in development with his third feature, America. The Earlybird production has a budget of approximately €2 million, and it received a €270,000 grant at the most recent project contest organised by the Romanian National Film Center (see the news).

Şerban told Cinemagia.ro, Romania's most popular film website, that he has been writing the screenplay for 15 years and that the film will be partly shot in the United States. The movie’s events take place in the 1990s. At the core of the story is Anton, a high-school teacher in a provincial town. His dream is to emigrate to the United States, a starting point for Şerban to explore the “paralysis that hope condemns us to”. For Anton, America is not only a geographical space, but also “a mental, very personal space”, said the director. 

Known for discovering new talents in his titles (for example, George Piştereanu in When I Want to Whistle, I Whistle and Rafael Florea in the as-yet unreleased Box), Şerban told Cineuropa that he would hire a more experienced actor for Anton’s part.

Shooting will start next year, at the end of the summer, and at least some of the sequences will be shot on American soil. “It depends on the budget as to whether there will only be exterior shots or something more. The movie is not only about emigration, but also about the fulfilment of a dream and conquering a realm of possibilities. It is important that America is felt in the film,” remarked the director.

The domestic release is expected to take place some time in 2017.