{"id":1956,"date":"2026-06-12T07:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:37:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:37:13","slug":"tudor-giurgiu-on-charting-a-new-direction-in-rollicking-transilvania-film-festival-opener-3-days-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1956","title":{"rendered":"Tudor Giurgiu on Charting a New Direction in Rollicking Transilvania Film Festival Opener \u20183 Days in September\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tA picture-perfect wedding goes horribly awry when the groom\u2019s mistress crashes the festivities, sending the bride-to-be into a tailspin \u2014 and toward her ultimate redemption \u2014 in \u201c3 Days in September,\u201d the latest from veteran Romanian director and producer Tudor Giurgiu (\u201cFreedom\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1954\">Transilvania at 25: How the Romanian Festival\u2019s Founders Keep Its Bold, \u2018Subversive,\u2019 \u2018All-or-Nothing\u2019 Spirit Alive<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe film, which opens the 25th Transilvania Intl. Film Festival, stars\u00a0Andreea Vasile\u00a0as Bianca, a 40-year-old bride whose betrothal to Victor (Emilian Oprea) is upended by revelations that he\u2019s been sleeping with his co-worker. With not only her wedding but her plans for the future now in question, Bianca flees the scene \u2014 and is quickly swept up in a rollicking, night-of-the-soul odyssey around a faded resort town.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tMarked by caustic humor and biting comedy \u2014 and built around an audacious, 65-minute single take \u2014 \u201c3 Days in September\u201d is a departure for Giurgiu, who is also the TIFF founder and president.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHis last film, the docudrama \u201cThe Spruce Forest,\u201d released last year, was based on the 1941 massacre of up to 200 civilians by Soviet border troops as they attempted to cross into Romania. His previous work of fiction, \u201cFreedom\u201d (2023), is a tense dramatic thriller set during Romania\u2019s 1989 revolution that follows armed clashes after an attack on a police station. (In the interim between the two productions, he made\u00a0the documentary \u201cNasty,\u201d a freewheeling portrait of the \u201970s Romanian tennis bad boy Ilie N\u0103stase, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.)<\/p>\n<p>\n\tFollowing such weighty subject matter, Giurgiu was, by his own admission, ready for a change of pace, although he says he was \u201cstrongly motivated\u201d to move in a different direction after hearing from his toughest critic: his eldest son.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201c\u2018We all know you\u2019re just into communism and history,\u2019\u201d the director recalls the 19-year-old telling him. \u201c\u2018Gen Z wants different stuff. Give us something else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWhat that \u201csomething\u201d might be, however, proved elusive. For some time, Giurgiu had been toying with the idea of a film about a disastrous wedding \u201cwhere everything collapses and goes wrong.\u201d He was inspired, too, by his compatriot Radu Jude, a prolific provocateur who restlessly experiments with themes and formats \u2014 his recent feature, \u201cKontinental \u201925,\u201d was shot entirely on an iPhone \u2014 working at a breakneck pace, often with budgets that would make the average arthouse filmmaker balk.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cYou can really have fun doing those films in a shorter time, and then you move to another project,\u201d says Giurgiu. \u201cAnd then I thought, \u2018Why not? Let\u2019s do something with this spirit in mind.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAround the same time, a friend called Giurgiu with a proposal to make his next film at a hotel the friend had recently opened in the Black Sea resort town of Eforie Sud. Giurgiu not only jumped at the idea of shooting there but saw it \u201cas an occasion to work with new people,\u201d proposing a collaboration where the key creatives \u2014 from the director and DoP to the production and costume designers \u2014 had never worked together before. Thus, the Arome Film Creative Camp was born.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1952\">Jon Hamm Not Eligible for Emmy Guest Actor Race for \u2018The Morning Show\u2019 Due to Submission Error<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe production would have a tight timeline, shooting over the course of a frenetic week last September. There was only one problem. \u201cWe had a concept, but we didn\u2019t have a story,\u201d Giurgiu says.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt was Transilvania Film Festival artistic director Mihai Chirilov who he credits with \u201cfinding the right canvas, the right story structure\u201d for \u201c3 Days in September.\u201d Stressing the impossibility of filming and editing an entire feature over the course of one week, he proposed a movie built around a single-take centerpiece, a choice that was inspired by Chilean filmmaker\u00a0Mat\u00edas\u00a0Bize\u2019s 2003 drama \u201cSaturday.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAfter receiving Bize\u2019s blessing, Giurgiu and his collaborators got to work, drafting the script in one month and making regular trips to Eforie Sud to map out Bianca\u2019s journey around the seaside town. The extended scene that makes up the bulk of the film, says Giurgiu, required \u201ca lot of choreography\u201d from cast and crew alike. \u201cBeside your craft, beside the work with the DoP, we had to do a lot of preparation with the actors,\u201d he says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t improvise. Everything had to be like clockwork.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThat included the performance of lead actress\u00a0Vasile, who is also the director\u2019s wife \u2014 a fact that Giurgiu says helped the duo find its way through the demanding, single-take scene.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cThe acting had to be very precise,\u201d he says. \u201cWe talked a lot, and she was so stressed. But without her carrying the tension, the emotion throughout the 65-minute single take \u2014 without those things, it would have just been like a technical achievement. It has to have a meaning, and this kind of emotion has to be conveyed by the actors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201c3 Days in September\u201d arrives in Cluj following its world premiere at the Intl. Film Festival Rotterdam. It was written by Giurgiu, Conrad Mericoffer and Radu Grigore and produced by Giurgiu and Mirel Olaru for Point Film. Cinematography was done by first-time DoP Alexandru Doroban\u021bu, with the cast alongside stars Vasile and Oprea rounded out by Conrad Mericoffer, Adela Popescu and Mirela Ze\u021ba.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tUp next for Giurgiu is a documentary about legendary Romanian gymnast Nadia Com\u0103neci, which will reunite him with the creative team behind \u201cNasty.\u201d Also in the works is a period piece about the unknown life of a man he describes as \u201cthe Romanian Nijinsky,\u201d Dumitru \u201cTrixy\u201d Checais, who was the leading figure in Romania\u2019s ballet scene in the 1940s but was later imprisoned by communist authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGiurgiu says the film will tell the story of the dancer\u2019s life while \u201calso mirroring the destiny of this country,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s mostly a story about identity, with the backdrop of a very complicated period in the history of Romania.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1950\">Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix 2026: Here\u2019s Where to Watch F1 Online for Free<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Transilvania Intl. Film Festival runs June 12 \u2013 21.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest feature from the veteran Romanian director and producer opens the 25th edition of the Transilvania Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1680,1681],"class_list":["post-1956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-transilvania-film-festival-2","tag-tudor-giurgiu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tudor Giurgiu on Charting a New Direction in Rollicking Transilvania Film Festival Opener \u20183 Days in September\u2019 - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=1956\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tudor Giurgiu on Charting a New Direction in Rollicking Transilvania Film Festival Opener \u20183 Days in September\u2019 - 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