Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! 2014 / Quod erat demonstrandum / Romania 2013
Andrei Gruzsniczki’s sophomore feature, set in the mid-1980s and handsomely shot on black-and-white film, takes a progressively involving look at two academics who have run afoul of Romania’s secret service. While comparisons will be made to The Lives of Others, this film takes a very different approach, distinguished by quiet characterization.
Not only the physical elements of mid-1980s Romania are captured in Andrei Gruzsniczki’s sophomore feature, but also the intangible atmosphere of cautionary hope, fear, and betrayal that permeated that society. Handsomely shot on black-and-white film, the story concerns two academics who have run afoul of the Securitate (Romania’s secret service). After mathematician Sorin Parvu (Sorin Leoveanu) sends an article about a new theorem to an American journal without going through the proper authorities, the Securitate classifies him as "an individual who maintains deceitful relations with people in foreign states,” and an investigator (Florin Piersic Jr.) is put on the case to dig around. While comparisons will be made to The Lives of Others, this film takes a very different approach, distinguished by quiet characterization. And yet, the sense of fateful compromise slowly builds, while a late scene at the airport is bursting with tension.
Jay Weissberg
105 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Andrei Gruzsniczki
/ Screenplay Andrei Gruzsniczki
/ Dir. of Photography Vivi Dragan Vasile
/ Music Pedro Negrescu
/ Editor Dana Bunescu
/ Producer Velvet Moraru
/ Production ICON production
/ Cast Sorin Leoveanu, Florin Piersic jr., Ofelia Popii
/ Contact ICON Production
Andrei Gruzsniczki graduated from Bucharest’s University of Theater and Drama in 1994, after which he began directing and occasionally also producing movies, creating both feature films as well as documentaries and shorts. His debut The Other Irene (Cealalta Irina, 2009) was an extraordinary success; it was screened at more than a dozen festivals and won several important prizes, including Best Debut at the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles. Besides writing, directing, and producing short films for television, he also worked on the popular television productions "Great Romanians” and "Real Women”. As with his debut, Quod erat demonstrandum is based on his own screenplay. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 2013 Rome film festival.
ICON Production
, , Bucharest
Romania
Phone: +40 371 343 318
E-mail: [email protected]
Andrei Gruzsniczki
Film Director
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