An experimental narrative that explores the relationship between three generations of Romanian women who reunite for one week.
Set in the modern-day Transylvanian countryside of Romania, Săptămâna tells the story of three women who reunite and spend one week together on a farm to mourn the loss of a loved family member who once lived there.
All three women are generations apart: Evelina (68) a widowed Traditional Romanian grandmother; Andra (late-40s) a Romanian-American immigrant mother; and Emilia (17) an American granddaughter. Eager to learn more about her cultural heritage, Emilia attempts to connect with her remaining family but struggles after learning more about their conflicted history on the farm.
The film will be in both Romanian and English with subtitles.
In preparation for Săptămâna, Teodora has been researching the technical and visual evolution of Romanian cinematography over the last forty years by interviewing Romanian cinematographers and observing the camera movement, lighting styles and the technical specs used in Romanian films between 1978-2015.
With this research, she hopes to emulate these transitional visual cinematographic styles. The ultimate goal is for the film to visually take us through the history of Romanian cinematography to the current Romanian New Wave. In keeping up with the narrative depiction of multi-generational characters, Săptămâna aims to look and feel like a 70s film at the beginning and eventually transition visually until the ending looks and feels like a 2016 film!
Teodora Totoiu / Director + Cinematographer + Co-writer
Teodora is a Romanian-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. With a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, she is an MFA candidate in Cinematography from the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television – which ultimately binds her interests in both cultural and visual storytelling. Over the last three years, Teodora has directed two short films and DP’d over fifteen projects including narrative shorts, experimental music videos and one feature-length documentary.
Anita Nitulescu / Producer
After completing her Masters Degree in Filmmaking, Anita has been dedicated to producing film content ever since. She has previous degrees in Media & Communication and International Relations which strengthened her passion for film and her knowledge of cinema. Anita has recently produced short films, web series, corporate videos and adverts.
Annie Pace / Associate Producer
Annie Pace is a writer/director based in Los Angeles. She is currently getting her MFA in Directing at the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television. She just completed her film Broken Pines, a dramatic short about two young sisters set in the forests of Idyllwild. Annie plans to film her next film in the Brazilian Amazon, written about her experiences growing up as the daughter of an anthropologist. Before moving to Los Angeles, Annie previously worked on anthropological films in both Brazil and Mexico.
Val Jashari / Writer
Val Jashari was born in Prishtina, Kosovo and came to California at the age of 12 as a refugee. Her love of writing and acting developed into a serious passion for filmmaking in her early twenties. She graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Film, Television & Digital Media in Directing, and plans to fully delve into her career as Writer/Director. One of her many subjects is the exploration of the effects of immigration, through realism, on culture and generation such as in this film.
Moses Navarro / Editor
A recent graduate of the UCLA School of Film and Television, Moses is a director and editor based in the Los Angeles area. The short films he has directed have been screened in numerous festivals such as the Downtown LA film festival and the Hollyshorts festival. His latest film “A Dance” is currently in the final stages of post-production and awaits for festival submission across the U.S. As an editor, Moses has cut both narrative films and commercial pieces for companies such as Ducati, Fiat, and Maserati.
Daniel Lafrentz / 1st AD
Graduated from the UCLA School of Film & Television with a degree in Narrative Production. Since then, he has worked in development and production for 10 years and has written, produced, directed and AD’d projects that have screened at festivals all over the U.S. including Tribeca and SXSW.
We’ve got a fantastic start-up crew behind this project but we still need your help to make this project a reality!
We are able to personally fund a portion of this project, however we still need your gracious help and support to make both principle photography and post-production become a true reality! The funds we hope to raise will go into remaining production fees (including insurance, locations, art, costume depts.), equipment (camera, lights and grip gear) and providing for our cast and crew. Additionally, because this film heavily relies on emulating the cinematographic styles of older films, our predicted post budget will be enough to help in the final post deliverables including edit, design, color, mix and music.
Funding an independent short film abroad isn’t always easy, but we’ve been working hard to find the best options that work well within our small budget without limiting our creative vision for the film.
Once this Kickstarter project is fully funded, we will be equipped with enough resources to complete our vision. We have a wonderful group of friends, family, crew and UCLA professors supporting this project, and we really hope that with your help, we can deliver content that you’ll be proud to be a part of!
Thank you for your kindness and generosity. We can’t wait to collaborate with you.