Biografía

14 de septiembre de 1975 · Vaslui, Rumanía

Member of the 'Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury' at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival in 2011.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 6th Beijing International Film Festival in 2016.

Retrospective at the Madrid International Film Festival 2015 (20-23 October).

[on Comoara (2015)] At the beginning, I wanted to make a documentary. A friend of mine, Adrian Purcarescu, who is an actor and director, told me about a legend, according to which the people in his great grandparents' village had buried their fortunes before the arrival of the communists. I took a film crew with me, a specialist also joined us with a metal detector, and we all went to search for the treasure. We didn't find it, so I decided to make a fiction film. [2015]

There are many films and directors that were, and still are, inspiring to me: from Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton to Éric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Godard. For example, Las noches de luna llena (1984) is a film that I watch with my crew every time I make a film. [2015]

[on the Romanian New Wave] We are this Nouvelle Vague, but I think that each one of us has his own style and makes his own films. I don't know. I think that if we continue to make good films, we will be there, if not...[laughs] As far as the international praise is concerned, I did not expect to have this success when I started making films. At the same time, they talk about all of us, because it is a small country, and you do not expect to have five, six, seven, or ten directors - you have to put a mark. This is good but at the same time it can be a little bit restrictive. (...) I think each one of us is very different. In a way, I am afraid...I do not like to compare myself. OK, I like the work of Cristi Puiu, I like the work of Cristian Mungiu, but, at the same time, I also love Rohmer and Godard. I see myself more universally in a way, because I also like Lucian Pintilie, and my roots are here, but at the same time, they are also abroad. So, I think that my movies are more linked to Rohmer than to my colleagues. And now, because we are past our first or second films, each one of us goes in his own direction and each has his own obsession, you know. Like Radu Muntean, for example, with this middle-class story, it is very interesting, or Mungiu with these female characters...[2015]

We Romanians invented absurdity.

When I am making a movie, I do not like to repeat myself, you know. Every film I make, I try to make it different than the last, but at the same time, I try to search and push myself. Cinema is like a journey...Every film gives me something new. [2015]