Stills
Short film / Romania / 2002 / 14 min / colour / English subtitles
Director: Cristian Nemescu
Catalina Mustata, Maria Dinulescu, Lucian Ciurariu
Andrei is madly in love with Monica, one of his neighbours. Andrei is a shy teenager, and he calls an erotic phone line to find out how he could seduce a girl in the lift. This is also going to spice up his parents’ marriage. Love stories from a lift, in the outskirts of Bucharest...
Prix UIP Angers, European First Film Festival 2004; First Prize, International Student Film Festival, New York 2003; Special Mention, Berlin Interfilm Festival 2003
Born in 1979 in Bucharest. Graduated in 2003 from the National University of Drama and Cinematography in Bucharest. In August 2006, Nemescu (27) died in a car crash together with his sound engineer Andrei Toncu (28). Nemescu’s producer started a short film festival in Bucharest, in memory of Nemescu and Toncu. More info on the NexT Festival at www.nextproject.ro/festival/
2006: California Dreaming (post-production); feature film, colour – director
2006: Marilena from P7; medium length feature, 45 min, colour – director, screenwriter, producer
2002: C Block Story; short film, 14 min, colour – director, screenwriter
2001: Mihai and Cristina; short film, colour – director, screenwriter
2000: Kitsch Witches 2FM; documentary, colour – director
2000: In Apartment Buildings People Are Crazy About Music; short film, colour – director
Nemescu was young and interested in sexuality and cinematic language. He aimed to mix fantasy into social realism, and dreamed to walk out of the habitual realist aesthetic of Romanian cinema. Most of his films had a sexual intrigue: exploring sexuality was a way to break free from the harsh skin of the real, and to reach out to alternative human and cinematic realms. Nemescu was interested in stories about marginality and youth folk walking on the border between ages and struggling with the forbidden and the taboo.
Nemescu made a great team with Andrei Toncu, his sound engineer. They were creative, and they knew how to have fun while being creative. The car crash happened late at night when they were returning home after working on the post-production of Nemescu’s debut feature, California Dreaming. Sadly, there is no ‘future continuous’ for them any more. (A.B.)