Category: review

Nikola Gocic review for our film #Beings

today we received such a wonderful gift
and amazing insightful review by Nikola Gocić
for our film shoot in Berlin in 2015
its such an amazing feeling when you find in another the magic understanding of Nikola towards your work
that seldom people have courage to feel and go with to the end
thank you soo soo much Nikola
you should see his blog, he has some amazing reviews

Philippe Grandrieux meets Šarūnas Bartas under a leaden sky in Andrei Stefanescu’s sophomore feature – a lyrical, genre-defying meditation on love, guilt, distress, solitude, friendship, madness and the irreversible loss of oneself during the unstoppable decent into nothingness.

A spiritual sequel to an off-kilter, nihilistic, (anti)romantic ‘drama’ Sleep Awake (Dormi Trezeste-te), #Beings is a highly unconventional piece of (no-budget) cinema; an almost wordless, unapologetically gloomy poem which plunges you into the innermost depths of human soul.

It focuses on three young people who seem to have been stripped of their very essence and turned into somnambulists, completely unaware of the unforgiving reality. Teo (Catalin Jugravu) is a photographer who is so enamored with his job, he barely notices his girlfriend Eva (Doro Höhn) and their mutual friend Ana (Andrea Christina Furrer). They look for affection, yet they ostracize each other in times of need, isolating themselves in the suffocating cocoons of despair.

Although we know nothing about them, their pain is almost tangible, materialized in the air surrounding both them and us, the viewers. It is hardly a pleasant experience, but it is deeply felt, especially if you are prone to fits of melancholy. And the moody atmosphere – supported by ominous humming and occasionally bordering psychological horror – is so thick you can taste its bitterness.

In order to capture the protagonists’ tortured mental and emotional states reflected on their faces – in subtle microexpressions and/or eyes gazing into foggy distance – Stefanescu mostly employs close-ups and mid-shots to great effect. His portraiture is simultaneously intimate and cold, his film immersive and alienating, set in the world of eternal grays.

There is not even a glimmer of hope on the horizon, which is aptly emphasized by the poignant, disturbingly calm finale playing out against the backdrop of sunset over Teufelsberg…

My films are whispers to the soul, interview for Detur La Preciziei

After a superb review on my latest film, #Beings, here, the film critic Maria Mantaluta asked me a few beautiful questions about filmmaking and my work.
http://deturlapreciziei.uk/films-whispers-soul-interview-paul-stefanescu

M.M.: I’m not sure how well, or even if, our readers know you (even after the review for one of your films, #Beings), so why don’t we start with a short introduction.
P.S.: Amateur filmmaker

M.M.: That was very short indeed, so I’ll just add that Paul Stefanescu is a passionate filmmaker (not sure about the amateur part, but so be it), who’s not only making films (…and other arts) but also hosted film screenings in Bucharestand is a breathing, moving performer. Personally, I always felt that your social media accounts are more like an on going virtual performance. But it’s not me speaking here, so let’s get back to our questions.
What can you tell us about your older projects?
P.S.: #Beings and Sleep-Awake, two “exorcism” films, as someone once described them. –
If that doesn’t make our readers curious, I don’t know what will.

M.M.: How did you start making films? What’s your relationship with film schools?
 P.S.: It’s a bit more complicated. My first encounter with film was in UNATC ( the National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts “Ion Luca Caragiale Bucharest), but it took me like 10 years to find my own direction in film, and in the way of making it, in which to truly believe. Making film is hard, and you need deep beliefs, to be able to “sacrifice” your whole life for a few film scenes. It took me a long time to grasp a meaning of art and to discover what is art in me. And what in me would matter to others. A never ending search for truth.
In what concerns film schools, my only contact was with UNATC, a good place to form a network and to develop a sort of passion for film. Even so, I do not advise anyone willing to learn film to follow a Romanian film school. For us, in Romania,  school seems to be, still, a poetical act.

 M.M.: What do you aim for when you’re making films, what are your expectations? From yourself, from the “final cut”, from the public?
 P.S.: It’s a classical route in art, first, you have a revelation – an understanding of something that is beyond linguistic discourse, especially if you are “a visual creature”. And then, you try to bring what you’ve understood, which is circumstantially dependent on a narrative and dramatic context, to an existential form.
It’s an emotional, intuitive and deep process. Of course, if you choose this creative path. What interests me the most is rediscovering the essences and being aware of them – that’s at the core of my stories.
I try to be totally honest. It’s really hard. And during the making of a film, being honest with your story, with yourself and with the essence you want to depict, all shape a different world. A world that pays for the effort, the pain, and the fight of keeping oneself open to it. And not only to the story, but it’s really important to stay open and true with the people you’re working with, and observe their own way of relating to the story. It’s a magical process. For me. For the people, I work with. For the public.
I, like Claire Denis, wish for the public to watch my films in the most open intimacy. Not collectively in a hall. My films are whispers to the soul. That’s why only a few can accept them, decipher them and connect with them. It’s hard nowadays to be totally open in this world.



 M.M: I know your interest goes beyond film, and covers other visual arts as well, or better said, your interest is in Visual Arts. What place does film have in this scheme?
 P.S.: Film isn’t film anymore for me. It stopped being a label, a definition of an artistic product. Film is simply a medium, like words. Normally, film means a complex process of production and distribution. The rest is art. Continue reading “My films are whispers to the soul, interview for Detur La Preciziei”

Interviu Andrei Stefanescu de Codruta Corocea

Codruta m-a intrebat citeva lucruri despre ce fac eu prin filmele pe care le fac, intr-un interviu pentru revista scolii ei.
Pe Codruta o gasesti cel mai bine pe instagram si facebook si ea un artist vizual implicata in alternative fashion si tot ce inseamna alternative culture.

Spune-mi te rog puțin despre temele majore care razbat în filmele tale,
Nu prea ma pricep la teme. Acestea ar fi frumos de gasit de oameni cu o pregatire mai intelectuala decit mine. Sint citeva cronici facute la filmele mele, probabil pe acolo sa se intuiasca la ceva teme. Habar n-am. Eu sint cumva pozitionat la celalat capat al vederii unui film.

Tu ce obsesii ai? Se manifestă ele în vreun fel în ceea ce faci?
Toate filmele si videourile mele vin cumva din obsesii interioare precognitive. Ma intereseaza mult nu sa enuntez idei, cit sa explorez zone umane foarte intime si secrete din om si dintre om si om. Cele mai multe sint nespuse inca. De aceea filmele mele sint un fel de cheie care deschide zone neexistente inca, si am tot primit acest mesaj de la oameni, cit de ciudat si de neinteles este experienta de a vedea un film, dar cit de revealing intr-un fel inca neprelucrat.

Ce lucruri îți plac și ce lucruri te sperie?
Imi plac foarte mult oamenii de nouageneratie care nu au acea osoasa suspiciune fata de tot si toate. Pentru ca fara sinceritatea si incredere in ceilalti este imposibil sa sapam in noi insine si sa exploram umanitati si naturi umane.
Cel mai mult ma sperie cind imi mai aduc aminte ca am trait o perioada intr-o lume in care totul era minciuna si adevarul era si el instantaneu transformat intr-o aluzie, intr-un sens alterat, intr-un instrument de abuz. O sufocare paranoiaca la nivel de intreaga societate. Ma bucur mult ca am reusit sa ies si si mai si sa imi pot exprima complet adinca sinceritate. Atit cit este ea la fiecare moment din timp.

Spune-mi despre cum e să faci film fără un buget propriu-zis și fără profit,
Exista o minunata libertate si sinceritatea din partea celor implicati, atunci cind faci un film numai si numai din placerea si credinta in acele idei si emotii. Si de aceea echipele sint foarte strinse iar experienta este foarte des una magica si minunata.
Dar pentru a stringe o echipa potrivita in jurul unui proiect nobudget este foarte foarte greu, si nu totdeauna un succes. Este un act mult prea spiritual pentru multi si de aceea nu se implica.
Iar atunci cind intervine plata, si circularea banilor, daca nu exista un sistem deja fluid, cum este acela cultural festivalier, finantat de un stat si noprofit, nu prea se poate face film, cumparind oameni si lucruri.
Continue reading “Interviu Andrei Stefanescu de Codruta Corocea”

Beings, review by Maria Mantaluta

I’ve asked Maria Mantaluta to write a small text about our 2015, Beings. And she was kind enough to see the film and wrote this amazing text. Its so wonderful to find people that understand and open to ones work. Thank you so much Maria for your kind and beautiful words.

you can find the whole text on her film blog
http://mariabiancam.coventry.domains/personal-notes/beings-2015-a-film-by-andrei-stefanescu/

you can see the full movie at
http://qualiafilm.com/blog/2015/02/15/beings-2015-indie-full-movie-eng-subs

Some films you follow, some films follow you. #Beings can easily fall in the second category of films which end up by following you for a while after watching it. It’s neither beautiful nor narrative. It is not everybody’s cup of tea; for some might be a whole kettle, while for others less than a cup. It might actually not even be a cup of tea. A dark atmospheric underground no-budget production, which proves once again that a film is more than polished visuals, special effects, and Hollywood stars, it is firstly a feeling, an experience, meaning exactly what lingers when narrative is erased from memory and images fade into colours.

Starting from a Eva, the film brings together a tormented love triangle, struggling with their own inner beings in an amalgam of guilt, love, lust, grief, loneliness, friendship, madness and absurdity which contours the human existence. Looking for and banishing each other at the same time, while looking for themselves, every character falls into its own interior world, trying to hide and escape their own anxieties. There is an uneasiness, a claustrophobic feeling of suffocation, an impossibility of breaking free. The film attracts its viewers and estranges them at the same time and with the same means. An hour of slow drowning, of diving into the most obscure and meaningless fears, an hour of industrial sound followed by crushing silence, which takes its passive viewers from Marie Claire to the desolate outskirts of Berlin.

Eva (Doro Hohn), Teo (Cătălin Jugravu), Ana (Andrea Christina Furrer) are just names in a hurricane of desperation and helplessness, each one enduring the guilt of the others’ suffering. No reason, no logic, no desire of going back to a once lost normality, probably; and love is not the solution as it usually is in a cliché of a world, but the trigger of irrationality itself. As I consider Andrzej Zulawski’s Cosmos (2015) to have a world of its own, which does not wait to be deciphered by its viewers, so does #Beings; the film does not try to explain itself, and it does not need to. The characters live in their own world, a world with no map, no directions.

#Beings gives no glimpses of a so-called normality, no light, no warmth, and once you start watching it you find yourself caught in a foggy loop as strange as it is familiar, through the clew of emotions and expressions it depicts, and which are nevertheless deeply and indisputable human. A poem of greyish images, the 53 minutes are a route from tense trepidation to quiet stillness. All the quick shots in the beginning, the long takes of the human body, Ana’s burdened gaze, and Eva’s cries for help melt into the static image of the sun setting over the industrial remains of something which was long forgotten.

Beings, review by Morgan Shnier

A breathtaking review by Morgan Shnier
https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganshnier

The 2015 film #Beings, Andrei Stefanescu’s second feature, is a partially experimental, partially narrative cinematic reflection on guilt, beauty, and obligation. The film tells the story of Eva (Doro Höhn), her estranged lover Teo (Catalin Jugravu), and their mutual friend Ana (Andrea Christina Furrer) who attempts to support the two as each falls into madness and melancholy. After Eva suffers a seizure, Teo kicks her out in a rage. Despite Eva’s efforts, they fail to reconcile, and Eva breaks down over the imperfections she sees in herself, imperfections that she believes prevent Teo from loving her. At the same time, Teo begins to mentally and physically break down. Ana, stretched between her friendship with Eva and her own love for Teo, attempts to help both of them, but is unsuccessful. Eva, wanting to escape her own skin, instead escapes from city life, at least for a moment, by lighting out alone into a decaying industrial wasteland, facing west toward the setting sun.

The film’s lead actors play their roles admirably. In particular, Höhn effectively and realistically portrays Eva’s anguish. Furrer should also be lauded for the subtleties of her performance. With subtle gazes and facial tics, she elegantly portrays Ana’s own suffering and anxiety.

Aesthetically, #Beings is perhaps at its best when Stefanescu allows the camera to linger upon his characters’ bodies. In carefully framed close-ups and medium shots throughout the film, Stefanescu traces the strange topographies of the everyday human body, treating the body as something observable yet unknowable. Early self-reflexive shots in the film’s opening scene subdivide actor Piotr Bockowski’s body like a series of anatomical diagrams. In contrast, certain shots of Teo in the film’s second half are almost painterly, with one sequence in particular heavily evocative of Jacques-Louis David’s La Mort de Marat.

Likewise, the film’s closing sequences in Teufelsberg are a practice in post-modern sublimity. While Stefanescu generally avoids traditional compositional structures in #Beings, these final shots have a classical, almost pastoral sensibility, with Eva bracketed on both sides by the derelict radar domes of the location’s former NSA listening station. This lends the scene an air of decay and suspicion entirely appropriate to Eva’s own feelings toward her own body.

However, #Beings is not without its faults. Stefanescu tends toward long shot durations that give the film a rather slow, halting rhythm that does not always jibe with the plot. Likewise, Stefanescu’s micro-budget aesthetic at times detracts from the film’s effectiveness. For instance, his handheld camerawork tends to give even calm, contemplative sequences a rather frenzied air. These scenes would have certainly benefited from a tripod or steadicam.

The film’s sound also has its issues. In most scenes, one can hear the distracting hum of an air conditioner or running water. The soundtrack to #Beings is a series of haunting industrial grinding tones that give an appropriate sense of paranoiac dread but, unfortunately, Stefanescu includes this track in scenes in which it is unnecessary, often drowning out or diluting the effect of the film’s dialogue.

That being said, the film’s beautiful aesthetics more than overcome these relatively minor foibles. #Beings, an excellent sophomore outing for Stefanescu, should not be passed up.

Doro about our #Beings experience on set and in the film

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In November 2014 Andrei and I were working on #Beings together. I played Eva and here are some words about this experience:

I didn´t know Andrei and his work but I was very interested, when I first read about the idea of this movie.
On friday night, he sent me the script.
On Saturday I spent the day thinking about it – as there were a lot of aspects that made me face some of my biggest fears …
Saturday night, I suddenly had the feeling that it was right to give it a try.
On Sunday we met for the first time.
On Monday I met the cast and crew.
On Tuesday we started filming.
For someone like me, this was more than quick.

Well, I like long preparations. I like safety – or always considered myself being someone that likes safety and is in love with clear structures (as boring as it may sound).
So doing this movie was an adventure to me. But during the whole process, it just felt right and I enjoyed this adventure very much.

The relationship between actor and director is a very fragile one and in my opinionl, if it doesn´t work, everything feels like fighting alone for a lost case. You lose connection to your character, your partner and the story because you are busy protecting and defending yourself.
So I appreciate Andrei´s natural talent of working with actors. He created an atmosphere of security and trust. By putting trust in me, I was able to take some risks and to cross some borders, I had built up for myself some time ago. I always felt safe, so I wanted to jump …
There was always enough time to get in touch with your character, to try, to fail and to try again. I personally enjoy this kind of working the most because this makes me feel like part of the story, not like an accessory put in the right place. Andrei’s way of filming and using the camera may be different, but to me it makes sense. We did a lot of intimate moments and I was able to forget about the camera very easily. It felt more like a partner than an observer.
As we only had a small team and almost no financial support – everyone was asked to put their energy and belief in this project. It was cold, it was dark, it was confusing and we got lost … but I loved every second with you guys – in the car, on the road and in the forest, discovering lost buildings and hidden emotions.

I do believe in Andrei and his way of filmmaking. He is not afraid to ask questions and to discover and show what lies underneath common aesthetics. It would be great to find people to work with. People who support us and our ideas.
I´m looking forward to work with Andrei and this team again and I´m excited about what kind of adventure comes next!

Let´s rock –
Doro

Beings review on Trisk blog

The amazing beautiful soul called Trisk wrote a review of our film:
[Romanian only]

 

http://www.cinemateca.eu/2015/03/beings-un-short-contemplativ-apasator.html

beings

#Beings este un film no-budget, in spiritul cinema du corps, al doilea al lui Paul Stefanescu.

Cele 3 personaje, Eva, Teo si Ana sunt blocate intr-o relatie de iubire amestecata cu dispret si umilinta. In urma unei crize (aparent epileptice) a Evei, relatia ei cu Teo devine inacceptabila, astfel ca decide sa paraseasca triunghiul pentru a-si gasi o alta forma sub care sa se intoarca iubita din nou.
Coloana sonora si prim-planurile prelungi sunt anxiogene, iar senzatia de claustrofobie se instaleaza din primele minute; personajele sunt scoase cu totul in afara confortului propriu si a rutinei placute. Lumea in care traiesc este, pe cat de noua, pe atat de lipsita de stimuli emotionali sau intelectuali. Fiecare din cei trei e prizonier intr-un corp, ca un extraterestru ce poarta un costum din piele de om…
Ca spectator, esti prins intr-un vis greu si apasator, in care mai mult simti ce ti se intampla decat intelegi; ratiunea si pornirea ei critica sunt puse cu totul intre paranteze, ca si cum n-au existat niciodata. Actiunea e o rostogolire subconstienta, fatalista; prin mici insertii mistice, Stefanescu isi duce personajele intr-o zona in care nu mai pot fi “salvate”, ci doar acceptate asa cum sunt.
Continue reading “Beings review on Trisk blog”

Mediacritica – Sleep Awake – review

Another great review for Sleep Awake, this time in Italy.

“Ogni lingua ha un suo silenzio” (Elias Canetti)
“Il silenzio è il linguaggio di tutte le forti passioni, dell’amore (anche nei momenti dolci), dell’ira, della meraviglia, del timore” (Giacomo Leopardi, Pensieri). Tale considerazione sembra permeare l’intera essenza di Sleep Awake, opera prima e indipendente del cineasta rumeno Andrei Stefanescu.
È un’atmosfera dal forte sapore pinteriano a scandire l’incontro tra i due giovani protagonisti, Irina e Ilie, i quali si scrutano intensamente al parco, intavolano un fugace dialogo e decidono di “consumare” il loro primo ed unico rapporto sessuale fino all’inaspettato epilogo che segnerà la vita di entrambi. Ed è un interminabile silenzio tra un dialogo e l’altro a metaforizzare il turbamento interiore della “coppia per un giorno” e a cadenzare l’espressività e gestualità dei due giovani. Un vero e proprio cinéma du corps, dunque, quello proposto da Stefanescu, concettuale e sensoriale allo stesso tempo. Onirico e viscerale, Sleep Awake si avvale di uno stile strettamente amatoriale (evidente è l’utilizzo della camera a mano per buona parte delle riprese) e documentaristico, con ampio spazio all’improvvisazione recitativa e a brevi ed incisivi monologhi.
Caratteristica dell’opera prima di Stefanescu è, inoltre, una dilatazione e scansione dei tempi narrativi secondo una logica naturale più che filmica. A tal proposito, si pensi alla passeggiata dei due amanti verso casa di lui prima dell’atto sessuale – il tutto cronometrato nei minimi dettagli e con un dosaggio centellinato del montaggio. A fare da sfondo è un utilizzo minimale della colonna sonora, presente in sole due scene chiave del film e intervallata dal suono diegetico di un cellulare che squilla. Attorno al vuoto esistenziale dei due giovani si dipana la desolazione di una Bucarest indifferente e spettrale, quasi ad omaggiare l’immagine straniante della periferia Continue reading “Mediacritica – Sleep Awake – review”

“Pierzind vremea pe Facebook” – review

Nu am mai cautat de mult sa vad daca “Dormi Trezeste-te” mai exista pe net. Azi amintindu-mi am dat un search si am gasit un nou review facut de Tezeu in blogul lui. Primul review care pune accent pe jocul actorilor si pe frumusetea de a face film direct pentru Torrent 🙂

E o bucurie aparte în a primi şi vedea ceva gratis şi există o lejeritate şi o largheţe în a face ceva lipsit de orice aşteptări de piaţă. Pur independent, pur ne-economic, Andrei Ştefănescu a făcut o treabă foarte bună. Asta e artă absolută, cea mai sinceră şi mai dezinvoltă, chiar dacă nu şi cea mai lucrată. Pe deasupra, omu’ ăsta a făcut filmul ăsta pentru el la fel cum eu scriu pe blog-ul ăsta pentru mine. Nu îmi permit să încep a compara cele două eforturi, a face un film, oricât de scurt, nepopulat sau lipsit de locaţii, este un efort enorm, dar îmi permit să cred că îl înţeleg într-o oarecare măsură.
Filmul începe superb. Miriam Rizea, actriţa aleasă (găsită?) pentru rolul principal are o intensitate aparte, o expresivitate uimitoare şi în primele cadre dă tot ce are mai bun. O actriţă de film. Este uimitor cum reuşeşte să te transporte în viaţa personajului, în trăirile şi universul ei intern în câteva foarte scurte minute. Urmează scena din apartamentul ei în care regizorul foloseşte puţin cam prea mult auto-focus-ul, dar fiecare cu pasiunile lui. Aici ea vorbeşte pentru prima oară şi după cadrele iniţiale de singurătate, angoasă, moleşeală, lipsă de vlagă, urbanizare şi detaşare de realitate, personajul nu poate transmite decât lipsa trăirii la intensitatea reală a sexului.
Sexualitatea devine tema filmului, unicul remediu al alienării, singura posibilitate rapidă, scurtă, capabilă de a te apropia de o altă fiinţă. Liantul dintre lumea internă, un loc al Iadului teologic, de exhaustivă singurătate şi lipsit de comunicare şi lumea exterioare, acolo unde alte insuliţe asemănătoare plutesc.
Mi-ar fi plăcut sincer mai mult. Poate o ieşire temporară din visul ficţional iniţial. Un escapism vag al personajului principal din singurătatea iniţială, dar asta nu ar fi schimbat cu mult filmul. Finalul m-a lăsat sincer puţin în ceaţă. Îmi permit să întreb, poate cineva vede filmul şi înţelege mai bine ca mine: în groapă, ea doarme sau e moartă? Nu de alta, dar respira vizibil şi totuşi aş înclina să spun că este moartă, trecând de la cadrul precedent.
Câteva mici probleme tehnice: auto-focus-ul de la început, sunetul a avut probleme de câteva ori, dar una peste alta un film independent bun, care cu puţină migală ar putea merge mult mai departe.

P.S. Am uitat de actor. El, Radu Crăciun, a fost genial. În primele cadre a fost atât de antipatic încât îmi venea să închid player-ul, ceea ce spune multe. Perfect din partea amândoura.
full article:
http://tezeu.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/dormi-trezeste-te

One nation under CCTV

Sabina a gasit un articol in slovena pe tumblr despre filmul Romanesc in care este pomenit si Dormi trezeste-te, cu un mic google translator iata ce a iesit:

“Ultra-independent film Sleep Awake (year 2012, directed by Andrei Stefanescu) is a classic example of contemporary Romanian cinema. Contemplative and monotonous in the best sense of the word. As is sometimes monotonous and routine life itself. Sometimes it seems that a man needs a boost, self-confidence, certainty and confirmation. Even a woman in the very introduction to this obscure film confesses his story. Long, nearly 15-minute-long continuous scene sets the beginnings of this piece of celluloid. Confirm speculation about seeking pleasure and challenge in life. Untitled half-naked woman is lying in bed and you ask questions. As in the confessional, the story comes from the camera and the viewer. He hates silence. I want it pulled, feels his skin and saliva that drips into her mouth, penetration, hard buttocks. The only goal in life is to fulfill her in the arms of another. Without pretensions, and sexual concerns. Skorajda raw, flexible in their sexual perversion. Ta monologue is full of questioning, denial and outright hatred. As if a man spits in the face, as it ignores own actions and body.
The entire film is made up of long, meditative scene, carrying the story, which is actually not at all. Slow cinema, realized in motionless silence, perceived views and gentle touch. Natural light from human skin makes Kingdom senses, which creates feminine beauty, even when reluctantly listen to her words and wonder at the fact that someone who has been in your life a bed of roses, so disdainful look at the world and people Continue reading “One nation under CCTV”

Sleeping Awake While Reading the World

a beautiful interview with our producer Anda, about the film and our future projects

 http://bucharest-tips.com/guide/sleeping-awake-while-reading-the-world-an-interview-with-a-romanian-independent-movie-producer/

An Interview with a Romanian Independent Movie Producer

”Sleep Awake” has hunted the virtual space since its completion, in 2012. Sensorial, visceral disturbing as ghosts usually are. They said it was a movie about the living silence around us. About the fight between our fears and desires. Some attended the screenings in a few artsy bars/clubs in Bucharest. Some loved it. Some hated it. Nobody left without a reaction. Anda, 24, the film’s producer, says that there is no other hard essence of the film than the disclosure of the most intimate feelings of each observer. Excitement, disorder, trouble, confusion, unrest. Maybe more.
Anda and Andrei, producer and director, completed Sleep Awake, a Romanian independent movie and they already have plans for new films: “Linear A”, telling the story of an unusual couple, dealing with poverty and trying to make noise music as a band and “Thraum”, a more complex project, needing a budget, the story of a child that metamorphoses, as he got growing a pair of spectacular butterfly wings.

Sleep Awake is available for watching online or download here or you can order a hard copy here.

We met Anda on a cold Sunday morning in the middle of the deserted battlefield of the Old Centre and soon shared common feelings about Bucharest, its people and places, which made everything much easier. Short-haired, vivid eyes, straightforward and natural, Anda is somehow representative (she might not agree:) for the new generation of people doing things out of passion and conviction, having something to say to the world without being driven by the financial rewards (which are good, when not a purpose.) She thinks independent, acts independent and has a weakness for independent films.

What Qualia Films means?
Qualia Films is a concept/film production house, without a legal statute, dealing with films about marginal groups with the intention of exploring things that are out of reach or that we are usually scared of.
It started with the core team Andrei, me, Sorin Nainer and the assistant director, Sabina.
My first project with Andrei (a test drive also, that’s how we’ve met) was a noise-dance videoperformance in the “jungle” at Moara lui Assan, called MENO.

Continue reading “Sleeping Awake While Reading the World”

Un film pictural – despre Dormi Trezeste-te

Pe zi si comentariu ce trece imi dau seama ca acest film este un film pictural. Un film care se explica ca o pictura prin relatiile dintre obiectele din cadru. Stiam ca omul acapareaza intreaga atentie si de aceea am insistat mult, foarte mult pe fiecare cadru, pe fiecare moment, ca privirea sa poata trece de om in lumea lui. In lucrurile care il inconjoara. In lumina si culorile alese. In texturi si emotiile inconjuratoare. Timpul diluat permite un studiu foarte detaliat al lumii personajelor. De ce sa aleg acele momente revelatorii din viata personajelor cind fiecare moment este revelatoriu. Ma uit pe strada la oameni si simt ca ii cunosc de o viata chiar daca ma insel, chiar daca cu fiecare clipa in care ma uit, omul din fata se schimba si se schimba din nou. Asta si poate pentru ca nu cred in omul fix. In omul cu personalitate, in El. Ci mai degraba cred in omul schimbator. In omul adaptabil si plutitor in lume.
Si filmul acesta este tot o incercare a mea de a descrie cu forme ultra realiste o lume ideala. Iar daca unii spectatori au spus ca aceasta lume au trait-o si o cunosc, ma bucura enorm, pentru ca asta inseamna ca aceasta lume ideala exista 🙂

Dar despre pictural vroiam sa vorbesc. Vroiam sa ajut pe cei care vad filmul sa stie ca linistea dintre cuvinte, obiectele din jurul oamenilor, oamenii ca obiecte, starile lor in relatie cu vintul care bate, vopseaua de pe peretei in relatie cu intunericul si cadrul usilor, cuvintele spuse ca scirtiitul mobilei, miscarile si dorintele la fel de importante si in dialog cu ferimele de lumina care ii inconjoara.
Omul este integrat in lume. Lumea nu este a lui, el este o parte, parte egala cu toate celelalte formatiuni ale realului, ale imaginarului. Toate firimiturile sint egale. Toate. Iar muzica vine din continuul dans intre formatiuni. Intre plasmuiri si disparitii. Intre schimbari si ramineri.
Un film despre dinamica punctului fix.

Si intr-adevar, de ce sa facem asa ceva? Asta nu stiu, odata ma incercat sa aflu dar se pare ca nu se poate afla inainte. Se poate numai descoperi ce poti face si doar mai apoi, mult mai apoi sa te uiti indarat si sa cauti un rost.
Constructia, constructia venita din deschidere, deja construita si folosita. Nu din voia unui om. Ci din cumulul nestiintei pure. Din idioata sinceritatea.

Andrei

Dormi Trezeste-te pe filmarta.blogspot.com

Mariei Drinceanu i-am trimis filmul pentru a-l vedea, in calitatea ei de cinefil si critic de film, sa imi spuna cam ce parere are despre el, sa inteleg mai bine zona si genul lui. Dupa ce a vazut filmul Maria mi-a facut o mare surpriza spunindu-mi ca va scrie un articol despre film. Un minunat articol.
Multumim mult mult de tot.

“Cinematografia românească a întâmpinat dintotdeauna greutăți în realizarea producțiilor, cele mai multe fiind de ordin politic si financiar, și cu toate astea cineaști romani au avut ambiție și mai ales pasiune și au reușit, în ciuda obstacolelor, să ne ofere câteva filme ce pot concura cu succes cu mai marile producții internaționale. Chiar dacă în ultimii ani filmul românesc a câștigat mult teren atat în fața festivalurilor, cât si a publicului, suntem totuși destul de „conservatori” și foarte greu dăm o șansă și producțiilor independente, cineaștilor la început de drum, fără…” more » 

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