14/05/2009

Romanian director Radu Jude’s debut feature, The Happiest Girl in the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile], opens domestically on May 15 after the last Friday night’s official premiere, which was a big success.

A bittersweet family comedy, the film follows 18-year-old Delia Fratila (Andreea Bosneag) and her parents on their trip to claim the award she won in a promotional soft drink contest and shoot a commercial in downtown Bucharest. Things get complicated for “the happiest girl in the world” (her line in the ad) as the parents are more and more determined to sell her car and use the money to open a family business, while the shoot gets tough and the pressure rises on Delia.

“I really think that this situation, in fact a very simple one, reveals many things about the sadness, joy and absurdity of being alive and living in society,” says Jude, who doesn’t find his film very Romanian. ”I don't know what's particularly ‘Romanian’ about the film, maybe this hunger for money which seems to have affected everybody in recent years”.

Jude’s short film The Tube With a Hat won a record 37 international awards to become the most successful Romanian short ever, while Alexandra screened in over 30 film festivals around the world.

A Romanian/Dutch co-production supported by the Romanian Film Centre and the Hubert Bals Fund, pre-sold to Japanese broadcaster NHK and HBO Romania, The Happiest Girl in the World is also the first feature project as majority producer by Ada Solomon & her company HiFilm Prductions. The film won the CICAE Award in the 2009 Berlinale and FIPRESCI honours at this year’s Sofia and IndieLisboa film festivals, and is sold internationally by Films Boutique.