Dan Chişu shooting The Anniversary
- The DaKino Production project will wrap in the first week of July
Dan Chişu, the leading name in Romanian independent cinema, is currently shooting his seventh feature, The Anniversary [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (working title The Birthday Party). It is only the director’s second project to have received financial support from the Romanian National Film Center (to the tune of €145,000). The budget amounts to €900,000.
Chişu is also the screenwriter of this family drama about the birthday party of Radu Maligan (Mircea Albulescu), a 94-year-old man who will find himself surrounded by his extended family and former co-workers for this supposedly happy reunion. Nevertheless, the evening will be troubled by secrets from the past. The film’s events unfold over a few hours, and Chişu uses this period of time and a multitude of characters to explore how people of different ages can have different opinions about historical events and about the hardships of living in present-day Romania.
Production started on 8 June and is expected to wrap during the first few days of July. Liviu Pojoni Jr is the DoP. Simona Bondoc, Emanuel Pârvu, Răzvan Vasilescu, Emilia Dobrin, Lucian Ifrim, Dana Voicu and Rodica Lazăr round off the cast.
The Anniversary is Dan Chişu’s seventh feature in six years, which makes him the most prolific Romanian director of the last decade. Two of Chişu’s newest projects, Bucharest NonStop [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and YouTube Bazaar, were selected at the 14th edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (29 May – 7 June, Cluj-Napoca). Bucharest NonStop, a comedy about four interconnected stories that take place around a 24-hour neighbourhood shop, is scheduled for release this autumn. It has the potential to become Chişu’s most popular film to date, surpassing the record set by The Bear (15,000 admissions in 2011).
The Anniversary will be released in 2016.
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