22-04-2009

Production: Mitulescu moves forward with Heart Shape Balloon

By Iulia Blaga

    Cătălin Mitulescu is in pre-production with A Heart Shape Balloon (Un balon în formă de inimă), his second feature after the acclaimed debut How I Celebrated the End of the World (http://www.sfarsitullumii.ro/).

    The film was originally to be shot last fall, but the production was postponed for lack of finance and for artistic reasons. (Mitulescu wasn't happy about the script.) Filming is now planned for fall, 2009.

    "The film evolves around a love story between a 17-year-old small-time crook and a 20-year old-chambermaid. The boy makes a mistake and kills an old man on a bus," says Daniel Mitulescu, the producer of the film and the director's younger brother.

    A Heart Shape Balloon is produced by Strada Film (www.stradafilm.ro), the company established by Cătălin Mitulescu in 2004, the same year when he was awarded with Palme d'Or for the best short, for Traffic. The Romanian producer is also in discussions with foreign co-producers.

    The script received a 480,000 Euro grant from the Romanian Film Centre (www.cncinema.abt.ro) in 2006, and won the Best Project award in Sarajevo CineLink and Thessaloniki Balkan Fund in 2006. In 2007, the script participated in l'Atelier Cannes.

    A Heart Shape Balloon was written by Cătălin Mitulescu together with Bogdan Mustaţă (Golden Bear for Best Short in 2008 with A Good Day for a Swim). The cast and the crew are still to be confirmed.

    Production information

    Strada Film

    41 Dr. Staicovici Street, Sect.5, 055556, Bucharest, Romania

    tel/fax: 0040-21-411.80.99

    www.stradafilm.ro

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