Condamnat la viaţă/A Farewell to Fools (http://condamnatlaviata.ro/) aka Ipu – Convicted to Life is an adaptation of the novel The Death of Ipu/Moartea lui Ipu by Titus Popovici set in a Romanian village during the WWII German occupation. When a German soldier is killed, the village officials try to convince the village fool to turn himself in to save their own skins.
Gérard Depardieu plays Ipu, Harvey Keitel is Johannis, the priest of the village, and Laura Morante is Margherita. The cast also includes the Romanian actors Bogdan Iancu, Alexandru Bindea, Daniela Nane, Nicodim Ungureanu, Gheorghe Visu, and Adina Cartianu.
A Farewell to Fools is produced by Giuliano Doman through Family Film in coproduction with the German company Daniel Zuta Filmproduktion and the Belgian company Minds Meet BVBA. It is supported by the National Centre for Cinema, Media-Tique, TVR1, United Media Services, Mediaedgia Romania, Mindshare Media, The Media Partnership, Starcom Mediavest Group, BV McCann Erickson, and Eurimages. Shoreline Entertainment is handling the sales.
Shot entirely in Romania in 2011, A Farewell to Fools was an expensive production for Romania at 3 m EUR. “The budget was a lot under what is expected for such a production, but with passion and understanding I hope we made an extraordinary film,” Doman said.
