Direction:

Cristian Mungiu

Screenplay:

Cristian Mungiu

Cinematography:

Vivi Dragan Vasile

Editing:

Nita Chiveluscu

Sound:

Andrei Pap

Sets:

Eva Szantai

Costumes:

Ana Ioneci

Music:

Petru Margineanu, Ioan Gyuri Pascu

Cast:

Alaxandru Papadopol, Doral Visan, Tania Popa, Ioan Gyuri Pascu, Coca Bloos, Tora Vasilescu

Production:

Temple Film; National Film Center, Romania

35mm Colour 99'
Romania 2002

In Romania, life doesn't offer very much, and everyone wants to leave the country. Luci and his fiancee, Sorina, are suddenly left homeless. Sorina's father would now what to do, but unfortunately he's been dead for years. Hoping to receive spiritual guidance, the couple visits his grave, where, as a sign from the Heavens, a bottle falls out of the sky on Sorina's head. Jerome, a Frenchman who happens to be there, takes Sorina to the hospital. In him, she sees her only chance to escape her dead-end life, and she proceeds to move in with him immediately. In an effort to win back Sorina, Luci gets a job as a "human bottle" in a beer promotion. There, he meets Mihaela, who has been left at the altar by her fiance..

He was born in Jassy in 1968. He studied literature and worked as an English teacher, a journalist, a radio presenter and a director of TV programs, before enrolling in Bucharest's Drama and Film Academy to study filmmaking. While attending the Academy, he worked as an assistant director on various foreign films which were made in Romania. "Occident" is his first feature film.

FILMOGRAPHY

1996 Horia Viorel Brief (short film documentary)
1997 Mariana (short film)
1998 The Hand of Paulista (short film)
2000 Nothing by Chance (short film)
2000 Zapping (short film)
2000 The Fireman's Choir (short film)
2002 Occident