‘Catane’ Turns Out Comedy Set In A Romanian Village

In the film by Ioana Mischie Catanethe twin girls braid their long red hair into one braid and tuck it into one sweater to make it look like they’re together. Why would they do such a thing?

However, it is all part of a larger “conspiracy”. It seems that the village in the Romanian mountains where they live had a trick. A minority of all citizens claim to be living with physical or mental conditions of some sort – preferably enjoying government benefits.

Back in Bucharest, a red flag is being raised among government officials. “All the residents of Catane village say they are disabled,” said the worker to his colleagues. Another replies, “What if it’s true?” They went to investigate.

Thus begins a comedy-romance called “poetic, funny and funny” by Cineuropa. The feature – Mischie’s directorial debut – was shown as the 21st opening night film^St A program of SEEfest, the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles.

“A lot of people in Romania say the movie reminds them of Wes Anderson,” Mischie said in a Q&A after the screening. “Which is funny to me because I feel like it’s local and very different at the same time.”

Mischie spent years developing the project, encountering as many obstacles and bumps in the road as the explorers drove up to the remote village of Catane.

“It took ten years to raise money for it. Everyone was against it at first,” the filmmaker explained. “We had the opportunity to do this project with very big producers, but they wanted to make it a play, so I had to say no to that, and I said, ‘We’re going to try to do it the way we think.’ I am very happy that we are always brave because it is nice to see the seed of the story come to life in the way you imagine.”

He added, “I feel like we have so much drama everywhere. Too much drama. Too much trauma. And I think we need to find something that can lift us up from the lowest point we’re at.”

There is a sense of humor in the proceedings as the government inspectors arrive in Catania and begin to meet a series of villagers, among them a very unusual man wearing a hat decorated with glowing lenses to help him see; a man who lost a limb and replaced it with an animal’s hoof; a couple who communicate only by nodding and chirping; a woman with painful bubo-like growths on her legs, arms and back.

“A truly lovely tale, a gift to all of us,” commented SEEfest founder Vera Mijojlić, who moderated the Q&A about Mischie.

Commenting on the tone of the film, the director said, “I come from Romania, which is a country of paradoxes. I grew up in the countryside in a village that was very far away. And from there I gathered a lot of spirituality, but also very different. We have this word in a village in Romania – called. face haz de necaz which means that no matter how painful the truth is to you, you just make fun of it. So, with that attitude, we somehow overcome anything, from scary stories to big, big disasters. So yes, we are perfect for that.”

Mischie said that thematically, the film is “about, on the one hand, the power of community. One of my dreams was to create a collective hero’s journey, not just an individual hero’s journey.”

He said it took him a while to find the place where he lives, the mountain is bucolic when it is still.

“We looked at this town for over a year. And the problem was that most towns in Romania are very developed. So, they were full of plastic and modern things,” Mischie told the audience at the Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills. “And many other villages were completely depopulated. They had no villagers. And finally, we found this place in the middle of the Apuseni mountains in Transylvania, Alba Province. All the villagers were warm to us. They made us feel like we were part of this big family… At the end of the shooting, we all wanted to move there.”

Mischie said he played by impersonating all non-professional actors. “I was thinking of going into the village, doing workshops with all the residents for a year and filming the next year, but the production team told me ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’ So, finally, I got a chance to work with a brilliant casting director and other people in the area. The actors you see on the screen are brilliant actors from Romania. I hope they will have more opportunities to show their work. They are very flexible and give a lot. “

Mischie’s script received recognition at Berlinale Talents, Sundance Workshop and other prestigious forums and won Best Script at Manaki Script Lab in North Macedonia and Fest Pitching Forum in Portugal. Catane nominated for Best Original Score in the Independent category (Foreign Language) at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, recognizing the work of composer Emiliano Mazzenga.

In the Q&A, Mazzenga discussed his collaboration with Mischie. “The idea was initially to use all the metals you could find in the area,” he explained. “What was different was what we call the ‘spiritual theme’ where we have all these beautiful images of mountains and I used Indian music and then we used something similar with Magda and Anton, the theme of lovers, which we felt was right because it was subtle, it creates this kind of magic. And that was one of the words that Ioana told me, as if we were looking for magic.”

Mazzenga said that the feeling needs to extend to the investigators, most of whom are buttoned up types. “We wanted to give this idea, even if they’re not tax inspectors, that they’re actually going to have fun and something magical.”

Catane played theater in Romania. “We’ve had 10,000 viewers so far with a very positive response, an emotional response, I would say,” Mischie noted. As for the movie being released theatrically in the US?

“That’s the dream. If you know any distributor in the United States, we’d be more than happy to send them the film,” said the director. “The film is now going around festivals for about one more year. Fingers crossed.”

SEEfest continues in Los Angeles until Wednesday, May 6.