20/09/2011

Screen legend Gérard Depardieu has begun work on the Romania-Germany co-production Ipu - Convicted to Live, directed by Romanian Bogdan Dreyer.

Based on a novella by Romanian writer Titus Popovici, the film is set in a small Transylvanian village during World War II. When a German soldier is killed, the Germans threaten to shoot ten villagers if the small community does not turn in the killer. Promising him legendary funerals, the villagers try to convince Ipu (Depardieu), the village fool, to turn himself in, but their plan is not easy to accomplish with such an uncontrollable hero.

The production started at the beginning of September in Sighisoara, the medieval town in Transylvania, chosen for its atmosphere frozen in time, and Depardieu's first day of shooting was on Friday. The team will shoot in Sighisoara for another two weeks, moving to Bucharest for the interior sequences.

Harvey Keitel will also be joining the team soon, as the priest of the little community, accompanied by Italian actress Laura Morante (his wife) and Belgian actor Hubert Damen (the doctor). The cast is rounded of by popular Romanian actors such as Alexandru Bindea, Gheorghe Visu and Daniela Nane, as well as little Bogdan Iancu (the protagonist of Ho Ho Ho, the best-received Romanian release of 2009) in the role of Alex, the narrator, an 11-year-old who befriends Ipu.

The screenplay is written by Anusavan Salamanian and Bogdan Dreyer, with the dialogue in English. The film is produced by Family Film (Romania) and co-produced by Daniel Zuta Filmproduktion (Germany). The production already has an international distributor, Shoreline Entertainment.

Born in Romania in 1962, Bogdan Dreyer is the director of Where It Is Cold in the Sun, which was advertised as the first film made in Romania after the 1989 Revolution. His second feature, Thalassa, Thalassa, won the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 1995. His most recent film is Never Enough, with Rutger Hauer.