Mirela Tugui

On the Impossibility of an Homage

Given a portrait, who is responsible for the image we see, the painter or the subject? Ion used to be a a rockstar of Ballet in Communist Romania. When we first discussed the possibility of a portrait, Ion was initially thrilled. He’d been dreaming that someday there’d be a film about him. But during the filmmaking process Ion finds it hard to let go.

The Happiest Girl in the World

Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism

Apocalypse on Wheels

This is a film about what the car traffic turns us into. For 5 months the director in the passenger seat accompanies five ordinary people (A half paralyzed man who not only drives a car, but he also helps other people to avail themselves of cars; Peruvian woman, who was been raised in a city with an equally crazed traffic; a father who has recently lost his daughter in a traffic accident; a policeman who was beaten up by the militia before December 1989) on their every day journeys around the capital.

Vampire Zombie

Film student Cătălina teams up with ex-rock star Marchizu' to film his comeback music video, but his resemblance to a childhood nightmare begins to blur reality. The encounter makes her question her memory and identity.