News: Sebastian Stan: “Trauma either destroys you, gives you birth, or reborns you.”

News: Sebastian Stan: “Trauma either destroys you, gives you birth, or reborns you.”

culturaladuba-ro [Google Translate]

Note: To view the accompanying photos click here

“That’s your responsibility, to look at all the parts of yourself, even the ones you don’t like, the questions you’re afraid of, to see who you are, how you were made, and then ask yourself: okay, now what do you want to do with this? ”

Leaving. For an 8-year-old, leaving can be a concept that comes to mind far too early, especially if they are venturing into the unknown. However, it becomes bearable when they have a mother who is determined to give them a new life.

The departure is rooted in the story of Sebastian Stan’s life. He left Constan?a as a child, leaving behind his beloved grandparents and friends on the stairs of the apartment building. He arrived with his mother in Austria, then in America, in New York. So that later his acting career would involve other and other departures.

But today we will not talk about leaving, but about returning .

With an extraordinary capacity for transformation, choosing the most different scenarios possible, Sebastian Stan is now one of the most appreciated actors in Hollywood, winner of a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar. He has dual citizenship – American and Romanian.

And in just a few weeks, he will be seen acting for the first time in a Romanian film, Fjord , directed by Cristian Mungiu, where any cinema artist fits perfectly – at the Cannes Film Festival, in the official competition.

To get close to a celebrity like Sebastian Stan, you normally have to go through an army of agents, whether impresarios, publicists, or literally, security guards.

On the set of the film in Fjord , Norway, things were different. For more than a month, Stan took off his invisible superstar cape and integrated himself into the different layers of the film crew, made up of Romanians, Norwegians, Swedes and Finns.

Also normally, such a celebrity rarely gives interviews and only to major, internationally known publications.

The fact that Sebastian Stan decided to give his first interview in Romania, after his Oscar nomination, to a small publication like Cultura la dub?, says much more about him than about us. It is just one of the ways in which he puts his notoriety at the service of others, to support causes he believes in, causes that otherwise do not enjoy much support. With the same reasoning, he supported, as producer and financier, the debut feature film of a Romanian director – Malul Vân?t , by Andreea Bor?un.

The discussion with Sebastian Stan was as natural as possible and touched on personal topics, which help us see him beyond his acting career. From the searches of a child who woke up in a completely different world, to the 42-year-old adult who tries to find his true identity and his role on earth. All this, in the context of the painful loss of his father – “with my father I spoke only in Romanian, which had created a very special intimacy between us, like an invisible thread that was only ours.”

What role does film play in this whole story? It is the art through which Stan can most authentically contribute to a world torn by conflict. And it is also part of his own quest.

The interview took place in Norway, in April 2025, during a filming break. Sebastian chose to speak in Romanian, but in places some ideas were expressed in English.

The material also presents the first images of Sebastian Stan on the set of Fjord , captured by photographer Adi Bulboac for Cultura la dub.

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News:  The gesture made by Sebastian Stan, one of the most famous actors of the moment, for women in Romanian villages

News: The gesture made by Sebastian Stan, one of the most famous actors of the moment, for women in Romanian villages

hotnews.ro [Google Translate]

Actor Sebastian Stan financed the film “A River’s Gaze”, which brings a less stereotypical perspective on Romanian villages. Directed by Andreea Cristina Bor?un , the film explores the complex relationship between a single mother and her teenage son, amid labor migration, and offers a candid approach to the realities of rural life: “Many families are divided and this brings with it anger and frustration, issues that were very clearly shown to us in the fall of 2024, during the presidential elections, and that we should not close our eyes to or forget about,” says director Andreea Bor?un in an interview with the HotNews audience.

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News: “A River’s Gaze”, the debut film of Andreea Bortun and the first Romanian project financed by Sebastian Stan, was selected in the Smart 7 competition, a network of 7 international film festivals

News: “A River’s Gaze”, the debut film of Andreea Bortun and the first Romanian project financed by Sebastian Stan, was selected in the Smart 7 competition, a network of 7 international film festivals

culturaladuba-ro [Translated]

Malul Vânât / A River’s Gaze, the debut feature film by director Andreea Cristina Bortun and also the first Romanian project supported by Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan , as producer and financier, has been selected in the SMART 7 competition , a network of international festivals supported by the Creative Europe Programme. In Romania, it will be screened at TIFF, the festival being part of SMART 7.

Andreea Bortun talks below about the research work on this film and working with non-professional actors, met in the rural environment. And Sebastian Stan tells exclusively for Cultura la dub why he decided to get involved in the production of the film.

The Blue Shore is the first part of a trilogy about love in the countryside. The film is an anthropological drama that adopts a rare approach: the cast is made up of over 60% non-professional actors, met in the villages where Andreea Cristina Bortun conducted field documentation for six years (2017–2022).

“Thanks to an impressive effort by the entire team, the filming took place over four seasons, capturing the cycle of nature and rural life. The film explores the tense and yet touching dynamic between Lavinia and her 14-year-old son, Dani, in a village in southern Romania. The director talks about combining artistic elements with anthropological work. For me, using artistic research tools borrowed from anthropological fieldwork came at first as something intuitive. It seemed natural and necessary to take part and get to know the world that interested me closely. They bring themselves to the screen first and foremost, and that very real something remains over time. This aspect of hybridity between what may seem documentary, but which is at the same time a product of fiction, is something that interests me as part of my long-term artistic practice. The years of field research, the discussions with local women who shared their life stories with me, especially the defining encounter with one of them – a model for Lavinia’s interiority -, I hope will ensure a fair representation of today’s Romanian countryside, which, after all, is home to half of

Sebastian Stan for Cultura la dub: “There are many female directors in Romania who have something to say.”

The project encountered several obstacles, and in its support came the American actor of Romanian origin, Sebastian Stan. Winner of the Golden Globe and nominated for the Oscars last year, Sebastian Stan tells exclusively for Cultura la dub? why he decided to get involved in the production of the film Malul vân?t . Known for his close relationship with his mother, to whom he dedicated his Golden Globe win, Sebastian Stan was impressed by the script by Andreea Bortun, which shows the struggle of a mother to give her son a better life.

“I was very happy to have this opportunity to support a project by a young director, just starting out, her first feature film.I think it’s really important, if we can, to support these new voices. Often great careers are born from these first steps. Think of Martin Scorsese, who debuted with Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1967) thanks to the support of producer Roger Corman, paving the way for masterpieces like Taxi Driver later. I can’t say that my support was as decisive, as important, but I tried to be with him in this endeavor as much as I could. My roots are there, in Romania, even though I left when I was only 8 years old, and the first time I returned was only when I was 21. This long break made the return not only physical, but much more revealing, I could even say spiritual. Through the films I make and my chosen profession, I want to contribute in a way that is beyond me, that goes beyond my personal ego. That’s why I got involved in Andreea Bortun’s film, because there are many female directors in Romania who have something to say. And she had a story that was a little similar to my story with my mother, there are some small parallels there. And it wasn’t just that that attracted me to this project, but also the way it was made: the research carried out over 6 years, the filming done in the four seasons, something quite rare for a fiction feature film. Over 60% of the cast are non-professionals from the regions where the filming took place, ordinary people who were given a real chance to interpret what they experience day to day and not just in a feature film. Including one of the main actors, the boy, which I consider to be a brave bet for a debut director, not many take it on,” Sebastian Stan told Cultura la dub .

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News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Trailer & World Premiere News

News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Trailer & World Premiere News

kinopavasaris.lt

Lavinia, a single mother, is trying to make a better living for her and her son, in a poor Romanian village. On her own terms. She’s impulsive, she miscalculates, she doesn’t know very well how to love. Dani, her 13 years old son however needs his mother more than ever during this period of his life, at the threshold between childhood and adolescence. In the course of the four seasons, Dani and Lavinia’s relationship is put to the test.

‘A River’s Gaze’ will have its World Premiere at the Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris in Lithuania on March 13. Tickets are available here. Sebastian is a producer and investor of the film.


News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Variety Update

News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Variety Update

Variety

Romanian filmmaker Andreea Cristina Bor?un is prepping a feature film to follow on the heels of her anticipated debut, “A River’s Gaze,” a Sebastian Stan-produced drama that’s expected to land a top-shelf festival premiere next year. Bor?un is pitching her latest project in the Crossroads Co-Production Forum of the Thessaloniki Film Festival’s industry arm, Agora, which takes place Nov. 2 – 6.


News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Update

News: ‘A River’s Gaze’ Update

TIFF – ‘A River’s Gaze’ is set to premiere in 2026.

The update is available on director Andreea Bortun’s profile for TiFF (posted below). Sebastian Stan is attached to the project as a producer.


News: The audio-video installation “Light That Never Quite Returns the Same”, by    Andreea Cristina Bortun, had its first public presentation

News: The audio-video installation “Light That Never Quite Returns the Same”, by Andreea Cristina Bortun, had its first public presentation

radioromaniacultural

Andreea is a film director who works transdisciplinary. She teaches in the Department of Screenings: Filmology of the National University of Theatre and Cinematography “I.L.Caragiale” and is the co-founder of “Pustnik”, the longest-running international journalism residency in Romania, a laboratory framework where she experiments at the level of the methodology of narrative development for cinema. It uses film as a sensory environment to create projects and narratives that speak of the origins of our minds, communities or nature. Her first feature film, A River’s Gaze, will be released in theaters later this year and will be part of a trilogy currently in the production stage.


News: How Sebastian Stan Finally Brought Hollywood to His Homeland With Romanian Festival Hopeful ‘A River’s Gaze’

News: How Sebastian Stan Finally Brought Hollywood to His Homeland With Romanian Festival Hopeful ‘A River’s Gaze’

Variety

It’s hard to imagine Sebastian Stan fighting for any part in Hollywood.

The Academy Award nominee has proven he’s as bankable in high-brow indies like “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man” as he is in soaring commercial fare like his continuing role as Marvel’s Bucky Barnes (next appearing in “Thunderbolts”).

But a cinematic homecoming that has eluded him over his career. Born in Constan?a, Romania, Stan has been trying to find a way to bring his day job back to his birth country and highlight talent in the region. Stan told Variety that’s been looking for the right Romanian script to act in for the for the better part of 15 years. Now, he’s found a way to represent behind the camera as a producer on “A River’s Gaze,” a Romanian-set drama from director Andreea Bortun.

It’s a story close to his own upbringing, Stan says. His single mom Georgeta raised him across multiple countries while forging her own artistic and academic path. Bortun, whose work is a blend of anthropology and visual art, has sent successful shorts to festivals like Cannes (where her collaboration with Stan has submitted for inclusion this year).

“A River’s Gaze” tells the story of Lavinia, a single mom herself whose ambitions of a better life for her 14-year-old son often eclipse his urgent emotional needs in the moment. Told over four seasons in rural Romania, Stan and Bortun caught up with Variety to discuss the artistic trip home.

Sebastian, how did you attach as a producer to this project?

Sebastian Stan: This came from a lot of conversations I’ve had with her over the years about my desire to be more involved with Romania creatively. A mutual friend who we both admire and respect spoke highly of Andrea and sent me her short, which had gone to Cannes. I was immediately blown away. I’ve wanted to act in a Romanian film for a very long time. I’ve tried and it hasn’t come about, but I realized that I can also help behind the camera. Andrea’s script spoke to me personally. At the center is this very specific, intimate relationship between a mother and a son growing up in Romania under particular conditions, which I feel are not always reflected much to the rest of the world. I had my own journey with my mom growing up there and leaving the country. I felt there were things about it that really rang true to me, and that was great, because it only incentivized me to want to be involved further in helping her craft this vision.
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