18/03/2015 - The Romanian director’s second feature will start shooting in April

After the 2011 release of his debut feature, Adalbert's Dream [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriel Achim
film profile], Gabriel Achim is now in pre-production with The Last Day [+see also:
interview: Gabriel Achim
film profile], a movie he will shoot independently through his production company, Green Film.

The Last Day centres on a special journey undertaken by four men from a provincial town. The mayor (Doru Ana), the policeman (Adrian Văncică) and the leader of the Christian youth association (Adrian Ciglenean) accompany their friend Adrian (Mimi Brănescu) on his trip to a monastery, where he has decided to start a new life as a monk. The mayor, an amateur filmmaker, offers to film the group's journey to the monastery, but he also has some secret plans for Adrian.

The screenplay is written by Achim together with Cosmin Manolache, the co-writer of Adalbert's Dream. The director is also the producer of this €120,000 project, which will start shooting on 20 April and is expected to wrap on 10 May. Shooting will take place near Bucharest and in the nearby mountains. George Chiper-Lillemark is the DoP.

Achim decided to shoot his film independently after his project did not receive a grant at the two project contests organised by the Romanian National Film Center in 2014. The director says the Center discourages first-time producers, as the evaluation of a project always takes into account the producer's previous activity. In Achim’s view, this gives a significant advantage to established production companies.