\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\u2018Catane\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIntra Movies<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThus begins a comedy-romance that has been called \u201cpoetic, humorous and satirical\u201d by Cineuropa. The feature \u2013 Mischie\u2019s directorial debut \u2013 screened as the opening night film of the 21st<\/sup> edition of SEEfest, the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA lot of people in Romania said the film reminded them of Wes Anderson,\u201d Mischie said at a Q&A after the screening. \u201cWhich is funny for me because I do feel it\u2019s very local and it\u2019s very different at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDirector Ioana Mischie takes part in a Q&A at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA following the SEEfest screening of her film \u2018Catane.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSEEfest<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tMischie spent years developing the project, encountering as many obstacles and bumps in the road as the inspectors as they drive up to the remote village of Catane.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt took a decade to raise the money for it. Everyone rejected it at first,\u201d the filmmaker explained. \u201cWe had a chance to do this project with some very big producers, but they wanted to turn it into a drama. So, I had to deny that. I was like, \u2018We will try to do it the way we imagine.\u2019 I\u2019m very happy we stayed courageous because it\u2019s a beautiful feeling to see the seeds of a story coming to life in the way that you envisage them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe added, \u201cI feel we have a lot of dramas everywhere. It\u2019s an overload of dramas. It\u2019s an overload of traumas. And I think we need to find something to elevate us from the very low point where we are in.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIntra Movies<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThere\u2019s a whimsical feel to the proceedings as the government inspectors arrive in Catane and begin to meet a curious array of villagers, among them an extremely myopic man who wears headgear fitted with magnifying lenses to help him see; a man who lost a limb and replaced it with an animal\u2019s hoof; a couple that communicates only through head jerks and chirps; a woman with painful bubo-like growths on her legs, arms and back.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really a lovely fairytale, a gift to all of us,\u201d commented SEEfest founder Vera Mijojli\u0107, who moderated the Q&A with Mischie.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDirector Ioana Mischie (left) on stage with moderator Vera Mijojli\u0107, SEEfest founder, at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSEEfest<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tCommenting on the film\u2019s tone, the director said, \u201cI do come from Romania, which is a land of paradoxes. I did grow up in a countryside in a village that was very, very remote. And from there I collected a lot of spirituality, but also a lot of contrast. We have this word in the Romanian village \u2014 it\u2019s called a face haz de necaz <\/em>which means no matter how harsh reality is for you, you just make fun out of it. So, with that attitude, we somehow overcome anything, from really dreadful news to big, big disasters. So yeah, we are perfect in that.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMischie said thematically, the film \u201ctalks about, on one hand, the power of community. One of my dreams was to create the collective hero\u2019s journey, not just the individual hero\u2019s journey.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe said it took a while to find her mountain setting, a bucolic if vertiginous location.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tThe setting of \u2018Catane\u2019 in the Apuseni Mountains of Romania.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIntra Movies<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\t\u201cWe scouted for this village for more than a year. And the problem was a lot of Romanian villages got very modernized. So, they were full of plastic and hyper-modern stuff,\u201d Mischie told the audience at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. \u201cAnd a lot of other villages got depopulated completely. They had zero villagers in them. And finally, we found this place in the middle of Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania, in Alba County. All the villagers were just so warm with us. They made us feel like we are part of this big family\u2026 At the end of the shoot, we all wanted to move there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMischie said she toyed with casting all non-professional actors. \u201cI was thinking about going into a village, doing workshops with all the villagers for like one year and then filming in the next year, but then the production team told me \u2018No, that\u2019s not possible.\u2019 So, ultimately, I got a chance to work with a brilliant casting director and also with some people in the village. The actors you see on screen are just brilliant Romanian actors. I hope they would have more opportunities to showcase their work. They are extremely versatile and they contributed a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMischie\u2019s script earned recognition at Berlinale Talents, the Sundance Workshop and other prestigious forums and won Best Script at Manaki Script Lab in North Macedonia and Fest Pitching Forum in Portugal. Catane<\/em> was nominated for Best Original Score in the Independent Film (Foreign Language) category at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, recognizing the work of composer Emiliano Mazzenga.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDirector Ioana Mischie (left) on stage with moderator Vera Mijojli\u0107, SEEfest founder, at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSEEfest<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAt the Q&A, Mazzenga discussed his collaboration with Mischie. \u201cThe idea was at first you use all the instruments that you could find actually in the village,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe only exception was with what we call the \u2018spiritual theme\u2019 where we have all these beautiful shots of the mountains and I used some Indian music and then we used the same thing with Magda and Anton, the lovers theme, which we felt was right because it was subtle, creating this kind of magic. And that was one of the word that Ioana told me, like we want magic.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMazzenga said that feeling needed to extend to the investigators, who are mostly buttoned-up types. \u201cWe wanted to give this idea, even if they\u2019re tax inspectors, that they\u2019re actually going to an adventure and something magical.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCatane<\/em> has played theatrically in Romania. \u201cWe had 10,000 spectators so far with a very, very nice reaction, very moving reactions, I would say,\u201d Mischie noted. As for the film being released theatrically in the U.S.?<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s the dream. If you know any distributor in the United States, we would be very happy to send the film to them,\u201d the director said. \u201cThe film is now circling the festivals for probably one more year. Crossing fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSEEfest continues in Los Angeles through Wednesday, May 6.<\/p>\n \n![\"'Catane'\"](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
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