22/06/2012 - Tudor Jurgiu's first feature stars popular Romanian actor Victor Rebengiuc (Medal of Honor)

The Japanese Dog, Tudor Jurgiu's first feature, a drama about an old man who loses everything in a flood, has begun shooting in the Romanian Giurgiu county. To add to the name confusion, the project is produced by Tudor Giurgiu (Of Snails and Men) through his production company, Libra Film.

The film stars Victor Rebengiuc, the most famous Romanian actor of his generation. After his international debut in Liviu Ciulei's The Forest of the Hanged (winner of a directing award in 1965 at Cannes), Rebengiuc has been connected to some of the best received Romanian films in the last five decades, his most recent success being Calin Netzer's Medal of Honor [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which brought him a Silver Alexander in 2009 at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and a Gopo, the Romanian national film industry awards, in 2010.

In The Japanese Dog, Rebengiuc will be Costache Moldu, an old man who loses his wife and everything he possesses after his village is destroyed by a flood. Moldu will have to decide whether he keeps the piece of land given by the local authorities. The return of his son, Ticu, who has lived for many years in Japan, will help choose a new path.

Written by Ioan Antoci, the project will require a four-week shoot and is expected to wrap mid-July. The DoP is Andrei Butica. The film also stars Serban Pavlu (Everybody in Our Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile]), Kana Hashimoto, Constantin Draganescu, Ioana Abur, and Alexandrina Halic.

The Japanese Dog has received support from the MEDIA programme and from the National Film Center. The project won the Krzysztof Kieslowski award for Best Screenplay at the ScriptEast programme in 2009. According to the production company, The Japanese Dog will be domestically released next spring, through Libra's distribution arm, Transilvania Film.