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Săptămâna Mare

Holy Week
Forum 2024
© Mandragora/Shellac
Leiba lives with his wife Sura and their son Eli in a village located within a Romanian landscape so beautiful it could be a painting. The Jewish family runs the village inn, a meeting point for travellers and the village community at the end of the 19th century. At first glance, the people that eat and drink here are all alike. This is where they belong. But their table conversations reveal prejudices and racist sentiments. A little derision here, some underlying envy there, poisonous attributions. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least for now. Those who are close always tease each other. Holy Week is a free adaptation of the 1889 novella “An Easter Torch” by Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale. For this, Andrei Cohn crafts a world illuminated by considerable cinematic and psychological nuance. His characters seem to inhabit this world as if they were living today, like the people right next door, caught up in their own lives. Even when the fuse of anti-Semitism has already been lit, Leiba and his wife make plans, argue or giggle with joy. Between Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, a bomb will explode.
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by Andrei Cohn
with Doru Bem, Nicoleta Lefter, Ciprian Chiricheș, Mario Gheorghe Dinu, Ana Cioneta Romania / Switzerland 2024 Romanian 133’ Colour World premiere

With

  • Doru Bem
  • Nicoleta Lefter
  • Ciprian Chiricheș
  • Mario Gheorghe Dinu
  • Ana Cioneta

Crew

Director Andrei Cohn
Screenplay Andrei Cohn
Cinematography Andrei Butică
Editing Andrei Iancu, Dana Bunescu
Sound Design Daniel Soare, Petre Osman
Production Design Cristian Niculescu
Costumes Viorica Petrovici
Make-Up Dora Codiță, Nicoleta Handuri
Producer Anca Puiu
Executive Producer Bogdan Zărnoianu
Co-Producer Dan Wechsler
Co-Production Bord Cadre films Genf

World sales

Shellac

https://shellacfilms.com https://shellacfilms.com

Produced by

Mandragora

https://mandragora.ro https://mandragora.ro

Photos

Andrei Cohn

Born in Bucharest in 1972. He trained in fine arts before turning to directing and screenwriting. After making a series of short films in the early 2010s, he directed his first feature Back Home in 2015, followed by Arest in 2019, which was presented in competition at Karlovy Vary and at the Transylvania and Cairo Film Festivals. Săptămâna Mare is his third feature film.

Filmography

2009 Inainte si Dupa 22/12/1989 (Before and After 22/12/1989); short film 2010 Maica Domnului de la parter (Mother of God on the Ground); short film 2012 Family Picture; short film 2015 Acasã la tata (Back Home) 2019 Arest 2024 Săptămâna Mare (Holy Week)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024