Olga, her father and her two sisters are living an easy life thanks to the fortune of her grandmother, Ileana, once a lawyer. Ileana’s sudden death troubles the balance of the family and especially Olga, to whom Ileana confessed on the death bed that the files for international adoptions that she worked on after 1990 are inconsistent, and much is not known about the whereabouts of some children. In order to uncover proofs to clean Ileana’s name as well as her own consciousness, Olga has to unbury the past and make peace with it.
The cast includes Maria Popistașu, Ionel Mihăilescu, Lucreţia Mandric, Nicoleta Hâncu, Victoria Răileanu, Ioana Blaj, Ada Navrot and Ana Ciontea.
“The idea of the film came to us before the pandemic, I guess right after we co-directed our short The Seagull / Pescărușul. As I finished Film Directing, my dream about directing met Maria’s wish to generate her own projects as a mean to alleviate ‘the phone that doesn’t ring’ syndrome that every actor has”, Alex Baciu told FNE.
Popistașu and Baciu used the method applied to all the scripts that Baciu wrote together with Răzvan Rădulescu and Radu Muntean for Muntean’s films. After long discussions and working on treatment, they shared the sequences equally and wrote them chronologically. “The challenge was to manage to write together but after that, directing came naturally”, Baciu added.
“I cannot say that I wanted so badly to direct, as I primarily wanted to play more and to write. But, gradually, directing appealed to me because it seemed to allow me to keep control as much as possible over the initial idea. I discovered that I enjoy writing, and this is I guess the most surprising satisfaction that I had from this experience”, Maria Popistașu added.
Romania’s Tangaj Production is producing the film in coproduction with Greece’s View Master Films, with public support from the Romanian Film Centre (CNC), the Greek Film Centre, and the Romanian Television (TVR), being also supported by Cinema City, Banca Comercială Română, Mega Image, Unicredit, Raiffeisen Bank and Centrul Medical Unirea - Regina Maria, among others.
The budget is approximately 800,000 EUR, representatives of Tangaj Production told FNE.
Y was shot in Bucharest in February – March 2024, throughout 21 shooting days.
It is expected to premiere in the summer – autumn of 2025, and Tribe Films will release it in Romania.
“No matter how hard and frustrating it is sometimes, the satisfaction of generating a project completely is big enough to make you want to repeat it. So, yeah, we cannot wait to do it again”, Baciu concluded.
One of the most sought after actresses of her generation, Maria Popistașu has received the Gemini Award for Best Actress in a supporting role for David Yates’ miniseries Sex Traffic (2004), as well as Best Actress at Gijón and Mar del Plata for Tuesday, after Christmas (2010, produced by Multi Media Est), both shared with Mirela Oprișor. She also starred in Radu Muntean’s Întregalde (2021, Multi Media Est).
Alex Baciu co-wrote nearly all Radu Muntean’s feature films and also co-directed with him the documentary Vorbitor (2011).
Production Information:
Producer:
Tangaj Production (Romania)
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Coproducer:
View Master Films (Greece)
Credits:
Directors: Maria Popistașu, Alexandru Baciu
Screenwriters: Maria Popistașu, Alexandru Baciu
DoP: Carmen Tofeni
Editor / colorist: Andu Radu
Production designers: Iulia Fulicea, Victor Fulicea
Costume designer: Rovena Andrei
Cast: Maria Popistașu, Ionel Mihăilescu, Lucreţia Mandric, Nicoleta Hâncu, Victoria Răileanu, Ioana Blaj, Ada Navrot, Ana Ciontea
