Carte Blanche: When Evening Falls on Bucharest

Director: Corneliu Porumboiu

2013 / 89min / DCP

“Is this a creative crisis? A crisis of faith? Like the best works created on a small canvas, its restraint produces ever-expanding meanings and interpretations. A fascinating film.” — Antoine Bourges

A director’s (Bogdan Dumitrache) abrupt announcement to his actress (Diana Avramut) that she’ll be expected to shoot a forthcoming scene in the nude sets in motion Porumboiu’s rigorously structured third feature, an exploration of the confusions that arise when professional and sexual relations become entangled as well as on-set power dynamics. A film rife with provocations, both formal—it’s made up of 14 11-minute shots, none featuring camera movement—and moral.

Introduction by Antoine Bourges, the carte blanche selection within his series Minding the Gaps, on Friday, February 23rd