08/05/2007

Romanian director Cãtãlin Mitulescu is set to attract the spotlight once again at the Cannes Film Festival, where he took the 2003 Palme d’Or for Best Short and last year presented his acclaimed directorial feature debut The Way I Spent the End of the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see article), which won Best Actress in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

The new project from the 35 year-old director from Bucharest, A Heart Shaped Balloon, is one of 15 titles selected for the 3rd Cinéfondation Atelier at the Cannes Film Festival (news). The film will cost an estimated $1.6m, $0.82m of which has already been secured. The 8-week shoot is scheduled to begin in September if the film succeeds in finding further financing at Cannes.

Starring Dorothea Petre (star of The Way I Spent…) and Gabriel Manea, A Heart Shaped Balloon recounts how a 17 year-old orphan struggles for his life in the port of Costanta, the final border town with the European Union on the Black Sea. Falling in love with Veli changes him but then he is found accused of murdering an old man.

"I’m fascinated by this character. He grew up by learning that to survive one has to be bad, but proves through his actions that he still has something pure and honest within him," highlighted the director in his note of intention. "He is living proof that there’s always a grain of goodness likely to sprout and grow within us."

Produced by Daniel Mitulescu for Strada Films, A Heart Shaped Balloon is one of five projects by European directors to take part at this year’s Atelier.

Other directors whose films have been selected are Austria’s Ruth Mader (see news), France’s Bertrand Bonello (see article), Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues (see news) and Italy’s Michelangelo Frammartino.

The 2007 Book of Projects can be consulted on the Cinéfondation site along with the profiles of individual meetings for industry professionals interested in meeting directors.

(Translated from French)