27-04-2009

Production: Cristi Puiu casts himself in Aurora

By Iulia Blaga

    Cannes and Berlin awarded Romanian director Cristi Puiu is in production with his third feature, Aurora, a crime story with the director playing the lead role himself.

     

    The Romanian director plays a 42-year old divorcee and father of two, acquiring a driving licence in order to play the part. Puiu also wrote the script for Mandragora.

    Aurora is a co-production from Romanian company Mandragora Films (http://www.mandragora.ro/), Swiss company Bord Cadre Films (http://www.bordcadrefilms.com), the French Société Parisienne de Production (http://www.thecopro.de) and the German company Essential Filmproduktion GmbH (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

    The project has received the biggest grant from the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro), 421,850 Euro. It received 250,000 Euro from Eurimages, and is also supported by Arte France Cinema (www.artefrancecinema.visualnet.com). The budget is 1.5 million Euro.

    The shooting is due to be completed by mid-May. The production team is maintaining a cloud of secrecy around the film. None of the rest of the cast has been announced.

    The release of the film is set for 2010.