After releasing Good Guys Go to Heaven [+lire aussi :
critique
fiche film] in March 2024 (see the news), Romanian director Radu Potcoavă has just picture-locked his fourth feature, Kîzîm, the first Romanian feature set in the Tatar community in South-Eastern Romania. The title means “my daughter” in the Tatar idiom, and the feature is produced by Ruxandra Flonta through Scharf Film. 

The screenplay, written by actor-screenwriter-director Elias Ferkin Musuret, who has Tatar origins, follows 15-year-old Selda (Yeliz Mustafa) whose life turns upside down when she falls in love with a Christian boy (Matei Saizescu). The new relationship enrages Selda’s traditional family, her parents insisting she must observe the Tatar way of life, where there is no place for Christian boys. The conflict will push Selda on a path where she must choose between two worlds.

The film’s budget amounts to €520,000, with €200,000 coming from the Romanian National Film Center. The film was shot by DoP Liviu Mărghidan in Bucharest and in towns on the Romanian seaside in September 2024. Tudor Chirilă, Judith State, Elias Ferkin Musuret and Turchian Nasurla play other main characters in this film that is expected to wrap post-production in October, before getting released domestically next spring.

Producer Ruxandra Flonta tells Cineuropa that she has been fascinated by the Tatar world since her very first meeting with Ferkin Musuret, who “has been a true bonding agent between the crew and the Tatar community. Through him, I also got to know Tatar solidarity and their enthusiasm for popularising their way of life. I found it extremely appealing that we were able to find actors who spoke Tatar fluently. We truly tried and, I hope, succeeded in being faithful to their customs and traditions, including through set design elements,” the producer explains.

As for the director, he says he has always been fascinated by coming-of-age stories and, indeed, two of his previous films, Happy End (2006) and Summer's Over (2016), centred on teenage and child protagonists. “Selda is facing a choice that is both difficult and common for a teenager: you either own your decisions and stick with them no matter what, or you retreat to a comfort zone where nothing can happen to you — neither good, nor bad — like an insecure child, far from having a voice and a personality of your own. I believe that when you take the first path for the first time in your life, that is already a sign of undeniable maturity,” Potcoavă explains.