by Bogdan George Apetri
Romania, 2020, 123′, color
A small city in Northern Romania. Despite growing debts and an entangled personal life, Florin Iespas – a police detective – is determined to solve a hard case no one seems to care about. Ordered to put down the file, the cop continues his off-the-record investigations, soon turning up a strong lead for two hotel fires that resulted in several deaths. The suspect is Bănel, a security guard of Roma descent, but he denies everything. Faced with the refusal of the Police Chief to support his inquiry, the mistrust of his colleagues, and his own inner demons, the cop is forced to come up with a convoluted plan and take extraordinary measures in order to bring it to its inevitable conclusion.
“At first sight, Unidentified is a genre film, combining and subverting several successful popular cinema archetypes: the policier/detective movie, the action film, the anti-hero character type, film noir. At the same time, all these purely filmic elements work by supporting and complementing a very strong, original central story set in a unique and specific place: the world of the small town in Romania. The synergy which results from the combination of these different approaches makes this particular story a calculated challenge. It is a film which flows like a thriller but gets the audience deeply involved not with cliché, cardboard-cut characters but with authentic, genuine people, places and relationships, free from any easy genre conventions and cinematic tropes.
In tandem with the intense – sometimes frantic – plot line, this movie gradually reveals itself as an introspective film which looks inwardly rather than outwardly. It is, ultimately, a story about the interior landscape of the human mind and soul, a film about life-defining choices which spring from hidden desires and internal conflicts, pride, ego, unseen secrets, vices, unfulfilled dreams and inner demons. The film speaks about the private balance within each of us, a balance far less stable than we all imagine to be and which sometimes needs the smallest of triggers to unleash an internal implosion with devastating external consequences.
The spiritual voyage of the central character underlines a world in which the moral and ethical codes have been replaced by simple laws designed to ensure the survival of the individual at the expense of the larger society.” [Bogdan George Apetri]
screenplay
Iulian Postelnicu
Bogdan George Apetri
cinematography
Oleg Mutu
editing
Bogdan George Apetri
sound
Martins Rozentals
Jiri Klenka
production design
Mihaela Poenaru
costumes
Liene Dobraja
cast
Bogdan Farcaș
Florin Iespas
Dragoș Dumitru
Bănel
Vasile Muraru
Comisar Sef
Ana Popescu
Stela Bercaru
Olimpia Mălai
secretara Lizuca
Kira Hagi
Simona Muntean
Ion Bechet
agentul Dragos Chirila
Andrei Aradits
Mircea
Emanuel Pârvu
Marius Preda
producers
Florin Șerban
Bogdan George Apetri
productions
Fantascope
Tasse Film
co-production
Cineart Tv Prague
world sales
Wide
www.widemanagement.com
infos@widemanagement.com
Bogdan George Apetri is a Romanian filmmaker based in New York. In 2010, he directed and co-wrote the feature film Periferic (Outbound). The film was shown and won awards at some of the best festivals across the world (Locarno, Toronto, Warsaw, Rotterdam, New Directors/New Films, Thessaloniki, Viennale). His second feature, Neidentificat (Unidentified) recently has premiered in Warsaw International Film Festival, won Special Jury Prize, and has started its festival circuit with stops in Thessaloniki, and Goa. Apetri had already shot his third film, Miracol (Miracle), to be released in 2021. As a producer, Apetri co-produced 3 Backyards by Eric Mendelsohn (Best Directing Award at Sundance), Advantageous by Jennifer Phang (Jury Prize at Sundance), Song Without a Name by Melina Leon (Cannes Official Selection) and Blaze, directed by Ethan Hawke (Best Actor Award at Sundance). He teaches Film Directing at Columbia University.
FILMOGRAFIA
2020 Neidentificat
(Unidentified)
2010 Periferic
(Outbound)
2008 Ultima zi in decembrie
(Last Day of December, short)
2006 Foarte scurta trilogie despre singuratate
(A Very Small Trilogy of Loneliness, short)
