Valentin Hotea starts shooting his first feature

by Stefan Dobroiu

13/09/2012 - Valentin Hotea (pictured) has started shooting his first feature, Roxanne, produced by Hi Film and co-produced by Abis Studio (Romania) and Cor Leonis Films LTD (Hungary). Production will need one month to wrap, with filming locations in Bucharest and the city of Sinaia.

The film's title comes from the hit song by The Police and the story follows Tavi Ionescu (Serban Pavlu, seen in this year's Everybody in our Family [trailer, film focus]), a 38-year old man who discovers disturbing information in his secret service file: his former girlfriend, Roxana, to whom he dedicated the song on the radio before the '89 Revolution, gave birth to a boy and he may be the father. Tavi tries to meet Roxana's new family in order to connect with his son.

Diana Dumbrava (winner of a Silver Leopard at Locarno in 2003 for Calin Netzer's first feature, Maria) is Roxana. The cast is rounded out by Mihai Calin, Adrian Vancica, Valeria Seciu and newcomer Anghel Damian (son of Anca Damian, the director of Crulic – The Path to Beyond [trailer, film focus]) with his first important part in a feature. The screenplay is by Ileana Muntean and Valentin Hotea. Alexandru Sterian is the DoP.

Budgeted at €550,000, the film received an approximately €170,000 grant from the National Film Center.

After graduating from national film school in 1995, Valentin Hotea directed a series of short films. He has also worked for the national television. As for Hi Film Production, the production company is getting ready to domestically release A Month in Thailand [trailer, film focus], Paul Negoescu's first feature, included in the International Critics' Week sidebar at this year's Venice Film Festival. Through its distribution arm Parada Film, Hi Film will also release Hermine Huntgeburth's Tom Sawyer [trailer], which it co-produced.