Dan Chișu explained for FNE how this project came to life: “I was disappointed because the release of my feature film 5 Minutes Too Late / 5 minute (produced by Domestic Film and DaKINO Production), which was due on 26 March 2020 together with a national tour, had been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was so frustrated and I needed to do something, so while talking with my friend, the actor Emanuel Pârvu, about my project, we saw the Romanian online pandemic sitcom Discutabil and I came up with the idea of a feature film about a director trying to make a film during the quarantine.”
Nine Stories of Love and Hate in Isolation tells the story of a film director (played by Dan Chișu himself) who is trying to convince a bunch of actors to film themselves at home while playing parts that he has written for them. With advice from DoP Adrian Silișteanu and editor Alex Pintică (played by themselves), the director is putting together several stories of people who have spent various amounts of time in quarantine. The feeling of the real quarantine and the actors' real experience slowly leaves the realistic realm and moves into a disaster film with funny side-notes to Jafar Panahi and his politically forced isolation.
Chișu wrote the stories, but the actors were free to add or cut the text to their needs. Adrian Silișteanu saw the rushes and helped the actors with suggestions about framing and supplementary lighting. Some takes were intentionally out-of-focus to give the feeling of a technical compromise. The editing took eight days.
“I produced through DaKINO Production, together with all the people involved, but the budget was 0. Nobody received any money, but we did pay for the beers that one actor had to drink and another actor’s cigarettes in another story,” Chișu said.
The date of the premiere is not settled yet, as the director is currently looking to see if he can release the film on TV and not only online.
Production Information:
Producer:
DAKINO Productions (Romania)
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Credits:
Director: Dan Chișu
Scriptwriter: Dan Chișu
DoPs: Andrei Huțuleac, Dan Chișu, Alex Bogdan, Cătălina Mihai, Codin Maticiuc, Raluca Aprodu, Tudor Istodor, Adrian Silișteanu, Diana Cavallioti, Silvana Mihai, Corina Voicu, Ana Radu, Horațiu Carpiuc, Costin Dogioiu, Ilona Brezoianu, Adrian Titieni, Judith State, Radu Dumitriu, Emanuel Pârvu, Mircea Banu
Cinematography consultant: Adrian Silișteanu
Editor: Alex Pintică
Additional editing: Eugen Kelemen, Horațiu Carpiuc
Sound: Marius Leftărache
Cast: Andrei Huțuleac, Alex Bogdan, Cătălina Mihai, Codin Maticiuc, Ana Pandeli, Raluca Aprodu, Tudor Istodor, Diana Cavaliotti, Silvana Mihai, Corina Moise, Ana Radu, Costin Dogioiu, Alex Pavel, Ilona Brezoianu, Adrian Titieni, Judith State, Emanuel Pârvu, Adrian Silișteanu, Elena Voineag, Radu Dumitriu, Alex Pintică, Marius Leftărache
