27/01/2023 - We talked to the Romanian first-time director about strong characters and actors that can gobble up directors in no time at all

Every year, famously bleak Romanian cinema introduces a few fresh voices that break new ground. And with Day of the Tiger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrei Tănase
film profile], screening in Bright Future at IFFR, first-time director Andrei Tănase seems determined to do so by talking about hope and breaking free – and with real tigers in the frame, too! Here is what Tănase has to say about strong characters and actors who can gobble directors up in seconds...

Cineuropa: So you are a big cat person…
Andrei Tănase: I am an animal lover, but yes, I have a soft spot for cats, be they great or small. And I prefer tigers to lions, I must confess. They are as big and as powerful, but they are more mysterious loners. When I watched the news more than a decade ago and discovered the tragic story of [tiger] Mihaela, I already knew back then that I was going to make a feature about her. In short, in the winter of 2011, a tiger escaped a provincial zoo as a result of the negligence of a caretaker. She roamed around undisturbed in the surrounding woods, and she even reached a residential neighbourhood, but then the hunters who had been sent to get her discovered her. The footage of that exotic dead body left more of an impression on me than I can express. I wanted to rewrite this avoidable, absurd tragedy, changing its denouement, but then I realised that that majestic animal, after living in a cage in a provincial zoo, finally enjoyed a few hours of freedom, perhaps for the very first time in her life. She finally breathed the fresh air of the forest. And I started with that…

Is Vera, your protagonist, a response to the lack of powerful female characters in Romanian cinema?
I don’t think there is really a lack of powerful female characters in our cinema. I am thinking about the protagonists of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Oleg Mutu
film profile], Beyond the Hills [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cosmina Stratan
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile] and Child’s Pose [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Calin Peter Netzer
film profile], and I would have a very hard time identifying male protagonists who are as compelling as the women in those films. But, if we’re talking about the last decade, yes, I think there is a shortage of strong characters not only in Romanian cinema, but all over the world. On one hand, we have US blockbusters that seem to cater to an audience of 14-year-olds, while the arthouse cinema scene seems more interested in novel stylistic forms of expression or tackling the fashionable topic of the day. Both approaches undermine profound, compelling storytelling, and a viewer who wants to watch engrossing stories populated with strong characters realises that he or she has a better chance of doing so in a TV show.

Although not specifically highlighted, hope seems to be an important topic in your story.
Hope and breaking free. Both Vera and Rihanna live in a cage – Vera in one of her own making, even, following a personal tragedy. She is numb, overcome by guilt, estranged from her husband and rather obsessed with a past she feels she can still correct, somehow. The various situations she faces during the film lead her to accept that we cannot truly control what happens to us, and this acceptance will invite hope and forgiveness.

You are the only Romanian director to have shot with big cats. Can you talk about the logistics of it?
Shooting with animals is never simple, but shooting with animals that can kill you in seconds is just next-level. We had very strict rules, and we worked in special enclosures whose bars were erased in post-production. Although Thierry [le Portier] is a master of big-cat handling, and the precision with which he positioned the tiger in the frame was truly impressive, a wild animal is still a wild animal, and such a collaboration is possible only up to a certain point. If the tiger got tired or was distracted by something, perhaps another animal’s smell, we took breaks, and we even concluded the shooting for that day. Fortunately, those stories about tigers taking an instant dislike to someone in the team… That did not happen to us.

How welcoming is the Romanian film industry of first-time directors?
First-time artists have a hard life in all artistic domains, but in cinema, there are some advantages, as producers, financing institutions and festivals are always searching for “something new”. There are special funds for first-time directors and entire festivals, or at least sidebars, dedicated to their work. But when you are a beginner, the pressure is tremendous: you have to do everything in your power to prove your voice deserves to be heard, while an already-established filmmaker attracts attention and gathers resources more easily. In my case, the film needed a bigger budget than the usual first film made in Romania, so it took a while until we got there, but we didn’t have to wait for seven to ten years, as that is not unheard of. We got lucky with the topic, too, because who doesn’t want to watch a real tiger, made with no CGI, on the big screen?