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The Forest

director: Siniša Dragin

original title: Padurea

country: Romania, Serbia

year: 2014

running time: 73 min.

synopsis

At the center of this Romanian-Serbian co-production is the amazing story of an art historian in search of a painting that Romania’s prime minister gave to Josip Broz Tito in 1947. The painting of a forest with fallen leaves had been made by a renowned Romanian artist in the 19th century – and the forest is where Tito spent World War II as a partisan fighter. Romanian-Yugoslav relations under the Soviet bloc followed the same absurd path as the search for a reason for this gift. A playful cinematic study dedicated to a detail in the painting while exploring a great and serious historical subject.

DETAIL:
“Over night, the new friendship with comrade Tito fell. Following his disputes with Stalin, all the communist bloc was forced to proclaim Tito the worst enemy of communism. The newspapers were filled with caricatures...”

biography

Siniša Dragin is a member of Romania’s Serbian minority. He studied economics in Subotica, Serbia, and attended film school in Bucharest, after which he worked as a cameraman for Reuters. He is known primarily as a director of fiction films. Czech viewers may have seen The Pharaoh (2004) in Karlovy Vary or If the Seed Doesn’t Die (2010) at Febiofest.

more about film

director:	Siniša Dragin
cast:	Dalia Bogdan, Mica Rankovic
producer:	Siniša Dragin, Predrag Jakovljevic
script:	Siniša Dragin
photography:	Eugen Oprina, Siniša Dragin
editing:	Siniša Dragin
sound:	Ioan Iacoban

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