Produced by Bobby Păunescu through the Romania's Mandragora Movies Closer to the Moon is a coproduction with Renata Rainieri of the Italy's Rainier Group, Allesandro Leone of Poland's Agresywna Banda and Denis Friedman of France's Denis Friedman Production, with the help of Michael Fitzgerald of the U.S. company Ithaca, which is financing the Romanian share. The film was supported by the National Centre for Cinema.

In Closer to the Moon Caranfil takes on a theme dear to him, the loss of innocence, following the true story of a celebrated Romanian National Bank robbery by a group of formerly high-ranked political figures in 1959. All the perpetrators, four men and one woman, were soon arrested and forced to play themselves in a reconstruction for the screen. The men were sentenced to death while the woman received a life sentence. She was released in 1964 and escaped to Israel, where she died in 1977. The chapter marked one of the more bizarre and inexplicable spectacles during Romania's hardline dictatorship period.

Shooting took place on locations in Bucharest and its surrounds in 2011 on a budget of about 4.4m EUR/20m RON, Conon told FNE. The main characters are played by English and American actors Vera Farmiga, Mark Strong, Harry Lloyd, Anton Lesser, Christian McKay, Tim Plester, Joe Armstrong and Alan Corduner.

Production Information
Mandragora Movies
8, A.P. Cehov street
Sector 1, Bucuresti, Romania
Phone: +40.31.620.3503
Fax: +40.21.315.1000
www.mandragoramovies.ro
Gilda Conon, Managing Director: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Credits:
Director: Nae Caranfil
Script: Nae Caranfil
DoP: Marius Panduru

Cast:
Vera Farmiga
Mark Strong
Harry Lloyd
Alan Corduner