12/07/2013 - The contemporary drama explores a love story between a boxer and an actress

Three years after winning the Berlinale’s Jury Grand Prix and the Alfred Bauer Award with his first feature If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ada Condeescu
film profile], Florin Serban (photo) has just finished location scouting for the shooting of his second film, Box [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. To be shot over six weeks in August and September mainly in the city of Sibiu, the film may be one of the rare love stories that the new Romanian cinema has to offer.

A Fantascope production co-produced by Germany’s Augenschein Filmproduktion (contracts with other companies will be signed next week), the €1m project tells the story of Anghel, a 20-year old boxer, and Cristina, a 34-year old actress, married and mother of a young daughter. “I want to bring forward two destinies”, Serban told Cineuropa, “and see whether it is possible for them to live a love story”.

Repeating his casting method from If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle, Serban mixes professional actors with amateurs in his new production: all the actors in Anghel’s story are amateurs and come from the boxing world, while all the actors in Cristina’s story are professionals.

The film’s DOP is Marius Panduru (Police, Adjective [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile], Outbound [+see also:
trailer
interview: Ana Ularu
film profile]).

Box won a €190,000 grant from the Romanian National Film Centre in 2011. Eurimages also supported the new film with a grant of €220,000. The film is expected to be released domestically next spring.