Dark Ages is an art house thriller about a single mother (Angela) with three daughters, whose life is turned upside down by the sudden reappearance in Bucharest of a female Romanian artist, returning from New York. Carmen Dumitru, the elderly artist, plans to expose a deep-rooted conspiracy about the role of art in society through a film she’s working on, a “film to end all film”. As shooting progresses she draws Angela's oldest daughter Sara further and further into her orbit, upending normal family life. Tom Wilson and Loredana Novak penned the script.

“I wanted to create a plot-driven film with a strange, esoteric core,” Tom Wilson told FNE. “There’s lots of stuff in it about the history of aesthetics, but hopefully there’s enough going on to keep people entertained even if they don’t have any interest in the history of art or Mrs Dumitru’s off-the-wall theories. And at the same time, I hope that the film gives people enough to think about regarding the cult of ‘self-expression’. It certainly asks some difficult questions about the value of cinema, and creativity in general”, Tom Wilson also told FNE.

The main characters are played by Una Toma, Diana Gheorghian and Cosmina Lirca, and the cast includes Otilia Ciofiac and Eva Maria Cristian. Cătălin Cristuțiu, a regular collaborator of Radu Jude, is editing.

Corneliu Porumboiu and Roxana Garet are producing, and the Czech coproducers are Tomáš Michálek and Martina Netíková. Anda Ionescu is the executive producer. The budget is approximately 666,000 EUR, partly covered by production grants from the Romanian Film Centre (CNC) and the Czech Film Fund.

Dark Ages was developed under the working title Quixote’s Last Film at the Venice Biennale College Cinema and Torino Film Lab. The film was shot from 5 July to 2 August 2021, over 24 shooting days. The release is set for the second half of 2022.

Tom Wilson’s first film The București Experiment / Experimentul București received the Gopo Award for best documentary in 2014. His second film Matthew Mark Luke John, an independent feature shot in Romania in Romani language with non-professional actors, was nominated for Best Performance at London’s Raindance Film Festival 2019 and won Best Indie Feature and Best Actress at the Los Angeles Film Awards, as well as Best Feature Film at the Stockholm Independent Film Festival. Tom Wilson has lived in Bucharest for 20 years.

Production Information:

Producer:
42 Km Film (Romania)

Coproducer:
Cinemotif Films (Czech Republic)

Credits:
Director: Tom Wilson
Scriptwriters: Tom Wilson, Loredana Novak
DoP: Bogdan Filip
Editor: Cătălin Cristuțiu
Production designers: Sonia Constantinescu, Anca Miron
Costume designers: Sonia Constantinescu, Anca Miron
Cast: Una Toma, Diana Gheorghian, Cosmina Lirca, Otilia Ciofiac, Eva Maria Cristian