HBO Europe’s highly-anticipated second season of Romanian drama Umbre (Shadows) will premiere at Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF) before returning this fall. The critically-acclaimed local original series is the first television drama to screen at Romania’s most prestigious film festival, held in Cluj-Napoca in June.
Written by FIPRESCI and Gopo-winning writer-director Bogdan Mirică, Umbre follows unassuming crime gangster Relu who must juggle family and mob duties as his two lives become increasingly entwined. Mirică, whose debut feature film Dogs premiered at Cannes Film Festival 2016, also directs the six-part series alongside Igor Cobileanski.
Şerban Pavlu resumes his role as Relu Oncescu, who at the end of the first season made a deal with rival mobster Toma: to kill his boss the Captain in order to protect his family. But with Relu’s daughter now pregnant by the Captain’s son will he be able to keep his promise – and what consequences will his decisions have?
The festival will premiere the first episode of the second series on Thursday 8th June, with the screening attended by Bogdan Mirică and Igor Cobileanski, HBO and Multi Media Est producers, and cast including Şerban Pavlu, Maria Obretin, Mădălina Craiu, Gabriel Huian, Andreea Vasile, Sergiu Costache, Laurenţiu Bunescu, Silvana Mihai, Doru Ana.
The series is Executive Produced by Wayne Henry and produced by Alina David for HBO and Dragos Vilcu for MME. Steve Matthews and Antony Root serve as Executive Producers for HBO Europe. Season two of Umbre will premiere day-and-date on HBO Europe across 19 countries this fall.
Planeta Petrila, an HBO original documentary by Andrei Dascalescu, will also receive its premiere at TIFF. In Petrila, a coal mining town in Transylvania, an ex-miner turned artist and activist uses art and the absurd to stop local authorities from demolishing the historic buildings of the oldest coal mine in the country. His quest is not only to preserve the history and the identity of his hometown, but also to find new ways of keeping the community from irreversibly falling apart.
