Following Adalbert’s Dream [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Gabriel Achim
fiche film] (2011) and The Last Day [+lire aussi :
interview : Gabriel Achim
fiche film] (2016), Romanian director Gabriel Achim is currently in late post-production with his third feature, Snowing Darkness. The exclusively Romanian project is being produced by Anca Puiu through Mandragora and co-produced by Iadasarecasa.

The screenplay, written by Achim and Cosmin Manolache, follows Teo (Bogdan Dumitrache), a director who is immersed in rehearsals for his new feature centring on the personal turmoil he has suffered, caused by the death of his daughter. As the main story unfolds, strange and unsettling frame stories arise, which teeter between fiction and real life. The more the performance tries to disguise real life, the more it is disrupted by life’s unpredictable course, prompting a series of ambiguous, unbearable and absurd events.

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A low-budget production, Snowing Darkness is being made with circa €418,000. The Romanian National Film Center supported the project with a little over €100,000. The film was shot in Bucharest in the month of February 2020, just before the lockdown paralysed Romanian film production for months. Adrian Iurchevici was the DoP, while other significant characters were played by Rolando Matsangos, Gheorghe Ifrim, Anca Androne, Silvana Mihai and Luiza Gherghinescu.

Director Achim tells Cineuropa: “All of my films were born of depression, a depression that deepens with every film that I make and grows exponentially with every film that I don’t make. Actually, all of the films I have made were re-conceptualisations of the movies I was not able to make.” About Snowing Darkness, Achim says, “The protagonist is the director. As he is in open conflict with the actors, who have no idea where the project is headed, the director has a revelation: our inner self is conquered by darkness. In the darkness, one stumbles, one is scared. And that is exactly what his film should be about.”

The production company is eyeing the autumn as an appropriate time for distributing Snowing Darkness in Romania, but a clearer date depends on the COVID-19 situation and a potential world premiere at an international film festival.