Observator News [Google Translate]
Cristian Mungiu, director who won the prestigious Palme d’Or award at Cannes, spoke to Observator, Antena 1, about the new film he is preparing and which stars Sebastian Stan, an actor recently nominated for an Oscar.
Sebastian Stan and Cristian Mungiu EXCLUSIVE. How Sebastian Stan found out he was nominated for an Oscar: “I stopped rehearsals and told him.” Cristian Mungiu, interview for Observator – Observator /
Cristian Mungiu, a filmmaker who won an award at Cannes for the film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but also the director of films such as Occident, Dup? Dealuri or Baccalaureat, gave an EXCLUSIVE interview to Observator. He said that he was with Sebastian Stan when the Romanian actor was nominated for an Oscar. Cristian Mungiu also talked about his new film, a production that will take him to Norway for filming and which stars Sebastian Stan in the lead role.
“For now, Sebastian came to Romania for some rehearsals. We are not in a promotional phase because we don’t really have anything to promote yet. We are organizing to make the film and it was important for us to see each other at this stage.”
I met with Sebastian and Renate Reinsve, the lead actress, for some costume fitting and rehearsals, and what was also nice was that we were together when he received this news.
(Reporter: So he was in Romania?) Yes, he was in Romania and we were happy. He was emotional, but we agreed that we would work that day and we were in rehearsals when I received a message. I was happy to tell him: hey, you’ve been nominated!
Of course we were happy, but it’s very important that now we can focus on what we have to do, because what we have to do next is quite difficult.
I hope we can start filming in March. We have to film for about two months, until May, in Norway. It is still not clear whether we will also film in Romania, probably not, but that is a decision we will make a little later. We have a cast made up mostly of Nordic actors: Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, plus Sebastian and a few Romanians.
“We’ve known each other for a long time. He came to New York once, when I was screening a film, and we met. We agreed to stay in touch in the hope that one day we would find a project to work on together. And look, I found one that was convenient for both me and him. For him, both in terms of role, language, and period,” said Cristian Mungiu.
He also gave some details about the script.
(Reporter: What is the film about?) “It’s the story of a meeting of two cultures, if you want to say it that way, which is expressed in the film through the meeting between two families who live next to each other in a very isolated locality, in a Norwegian fjord, in a place that we found and where there are only two or three houses. A situation that brings a fairly intimate report between neighbors and that shows a certain exchange related to each one’s cultural values, ideas about family, about education. It’s a community story, a story about the need to understand that there are no longer monoblock communities like before.
I don’t know if it’s a “difficult” film, because I’ve never made easy films. It’s a more difficult film because I’m filming in a language other than Romanian, a difficult film because it also has to do with how the seasons manifest themselves today and because we don’t know what weather we’ll get there.
We’re filming for about 50 days and the hope is that during this period we’ll catch snow, rain, and spring.
“If everything goes well, we will try to get him to Cannes in 2026,” he added.