Synopsis
A night in the life of a 24-hour store located in a neighborhood of apartment buildings. Four people lead four different stories connected by a key character, Achim. The film is the story of ordinary people in extraordinary situations.
Director: Dan Chișu
Scriptwriter: Dan Chișu
Cast: Gheorghe Ifrim, Ion Besoiu, Dorina Lazăr, Adrian Titieni, Olimpia Melinte, Alexandru Papadopol, Dorian Boguță, Tudor Smoleanu, Maria Obretin, Lia Bugnar, Ilinca Manolache, Cristina Economu, Costel Bojog, Adrian Chibulcuteanu, Alina Crișan, Dan Bordeianu, Lili Sandu
Produced by: Diana Sălcudeanu
Cinematography by: Liviu Pojoni Jr.
Film editing by: Tudor Pojoni
Sound: Marius Leftărache
Music: Simona Radu
Year: 2015
Category: feature fiction film
Genre: comedy
Duration: 90 minutes
36,399 – Cinepub viewers
PLOT SUMMARY
Just another night at a 24/7 convenience store. Achim, the owner, represents the connection between four stories of some ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations. No matter how different they are, the taxi driver and the hooker, the elderly couple, the lovers and the local conmen, they all have one thing in common: Achim’s nonstop store.
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With this fifth feature, Dan Chișu returns to the urban landscape and cuts a “slice of life” in the transection of a „slice of night” in a Bucharest neighbourhood, where the characters’ stories intersect in the nonstop convenient store, attended by Achim, a rocker who knows the vulnerabilities of all the people who live in the area.
Inspired from minimalist Romanian film creation methods, DanChișu seems to be more interested in the morality of the actions involving the main characters of the four stories, ordinary people in extraordinary situations, as he himself appreciates.
In Bucharest, at night, prostitutes are beaten by their pimps, sneak thieves can cause car crashes on purpose in order to blackmail the other drivers involved, lovers try to get back together with the girlfriends they had cheated on, but each and every one of these people of the night has a good dosage of innocence and a grain of morality, qualities lit up by their interaction with Achim, the convenient store assistant.
AWARDS
- 2015 – Indie Film Producers Festival, Bucharest – Best Feature Film
- 2015 – UCIN – Grand Prize
- 2015 – UCIN – Filmmakers Union Trophy
- 2015 – UCIN – Sound Award
- 2016 – Love is Folly International Film Festival, Bulgaria, 2016 – Best Actor (Ion Besoiu)
- 2016 – Mons International Love Film Festival, International Competition, Belgium, 2016 – “Coup de Coeur du Jury” Award
- 2016 – UCIN – Best Film (Dan Chișu, DaKino Production)
- 2016 – UCIN – Best Music (Marius Leftărache, Cristian Tarnovețchi, Florin Tăbăcaru, Alexandru Dumitru)
Festivals
- Transylvania International Film Festival – Romania, 2015
- Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema
- SeeFest Los Angeles
- Munich Romanian Film Festival
- “Anonimul”Independent International FilmFestival
- Cairo International Film Festival
CRITICAL REVIEWS:
“It is clear that Dan Chișu knows, in this fifth film, how to articulate without hesitation the aforementioned intersection of stories. With one exception, and that is justified, he does not insist on a particular tone, he does not allow one story to settle comfortably, he leaves it to return to another, hence the dramatic-comic alternation. The connection between the outside and the inside is entrusted to a hopeless lover, whose girlfriend, Dora (Maria Obretin), wants nothing to do with him, does not open the door for him, does not answer his phone calls, and is not particularly impressed by the pebbles he throws at her window as a message. – Magda Mihăilescu – aarc.ro
“As before, Dan Chişu adopts a light tone, with situational comedy and dialogue, which sometimes veers towards farce, sometimes takes a serious turn and slips into drama. However, the director-screenwriter remains on the surface of the stories and, above all, of his characters, who are presented in a more caricatured way, with one or two traits, despite the superficial and forced efforts to nuance their behavior.” – Ionuț Mareș, ziarulmetropolis.ro
“The film ends, in fact, with the quiet death of the woman. The characters have all retired to their homes, and the lover’s door has finally been opened. No one has anything left to do or say. Beyond death, there is nothing. Sometimes, even so-called complex, profound films don’t know how to remain silent in the face of death, as this Bucharest Nonstop does in its simplicity.” – Magda Mihăilescu, aarc.ro
“Dan Chişu’s film reminded me of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes (1986, 2003) and Night on Earth (1991) in terms of its premise.” – Angelo Mitchevici, România literară, no. 15 / 2016, aarc.ro
“The good boy, the good girl, the kind old man and woman, maternally spying on everything that moves, are the characters of the ‘block’ world as outlined by Dan Chişu, and here the portrait is not just an individual one, but a portrait of the Bucharest neighborhood in the director’s intention. In any case, it is Dan Chişu’s best film to date. With a different script, avoiding genre clichés, and deeper character development, it could have been a film that broke out of the neighborhood of boys’ boys in cinema.” – Angelo Mitchevici, România literară, no. 15 / 2016, aar.ro
What we see in “Bucharest Nonstop” is that, despite their chaotic running around, our con artists’ bodies really just wanted to find a spark of life in their dead bodies. We are left to think about what the film really offers us, that the secret of life can only be found in the technology that died with us, the one we discredit as obsolete, but which truly retains meaning in the act of understanding it, of putting it back on its feet when it seems completely finished.” – Bogdan Popa, cinepub.ro
TRIVIA
- The film was the first screening at the Romanian Film Days at TIFF 2015.
- The film was made with exclusively independent funding.
- Filming took place on Nerva-Traian Street, Bucharest, and was scheduled to be completed in July 2013.
- Between October 18 and 20, 2013, the film will be presented at the CentEast Market Warsaw-Moscow (Poland) in the “work in progress” section.
- Actress Olimpia Melinte revealed that for the role of Jeny, the director asked her to start the film with a Moldovan accent, then control it as she went along — a directorial decision intended to emphasize the character’s evolution.
- Alexandru Papadopol said that it was challenging to be a driver in the film because the engine of the car used in the shoot kept breaking down — which affected his “uncontrolled” driving in the scenes.
- Melinte confessed that it was difficult for her to play a woman who “practices the oldest profession in the world”, reflecting on the complexity of the character.
- Papadopol said that his character, Gelu, is defined by the naivety and honesty with which he pursues his goal: to get money to go abroad and “get back” his wife.
LINES:
• “Hey, we’re waking up the whole neighborhood!” – Gelu (Alexandru Papadopol)
• “This guy is a real fucker!” – Lia (Lia Bugnar)
• “Last time, wasn’t it supposed to look real? Didn’t I hit my head on the windshield because I wasn’t wearing a helmet?” – Gelu (Alexandru Papadopol)
• “This won’t last me more than half an hour.” – Jeny (Olimpia Melinte)
• “Hey, Geani. I’m Marian, the guy with the taxi who takes Jeny to work.” – Marian (Tudor Smoleanu)
• “We do good, and others do us. I mean you.” – Bodo (Dorian Boguță)
• “My father’s pension, what can he take from me?” – Gelu (Alexandru Papadopol)
• “Didn’t you say he was taking care of an old woman who died?” – Bodo (Dorian Boguță)
• “After all, what was the Japanese guy doing in Romania?” – Old Woman (Dorina Lazăr)
• “Do you have a Nokia charger?” – Tedy (Toma Cuzin)
• “Soon you’ll be gone too, and there will be no one to light a candle for me at the corner of my bed.” – Old Woman (Dorina Lazăr)
• “There are five women for every man on the planet. Let’s not upset them anymore.” – Ilinca (Ilinca Manolache)
ARTICLES
- Review: “Neighbourhood Nonstop”, by Angelo Mitchevici – aarc.ro
- Review: “Poveștile unei nopți” (Tales of a Night), by Magda Mihăilescu – aarc.ro
- Ion Besoiu, Best Actor Award for his role in “Bucharest Nonstop” – aarc.ro
- Bucharest Nonstop – zilesinopti.ro
- Film review: “Between Blocks” by Ionuț Mareș – ziarulmetropolis.ro
- Dan Chișu has finished filming “Bucharest Nonstop” – filmreporter.ro
- With Melinte and Papadopol, about “Bucharest Nonstop” – ziarulmetropolis.ro
