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Săptămâna Mare

Holy Week
Film still from "Săptămâna Mare" by Andrei Cohn. It shows a dark room with a man and a child at the window and a woman on the left in the doorway. They are all looking out of the window.
Still from SĂPTĂMÂNA by Andrei Cohn © Mandragora/Shellac

  • Director

    Andrei Cohn

  • Romania, Switzerland / 2024
    133 min / Original version with English subtitles

  • Original language

    Romanian

Leiba lives with his wife Sura and their son Eli in a village located within a Romanian landscape so beautiful it could be a painting. The Jewish family runs the village inn, a meeting point for travellers and the village community at the end of the 19th century. At first glance, the people that eat and drink here are all alike. This is where they belong. But their table conversations reveal prejudices and racist sentiments. A little derision here, some underlying envy there, poisonous attributions. Nothing out of the ordinary, at least for now. Those who are close always tease each other. Holy Week is a free adaptation of the 1889 novella “An Easter Torch” by Romanian author Ion Luca Caragiale. For this, Andrei Cohn crafts a world illuminated by considerable cinematic and psychological nuance. His characters seem to inhabit this world as if they were living today, like the people right next door, caught up in their own lives. Even when the fuse of anti-Semitism has already been lit, Leiba and his wife make plans, argue or giggle with joy. Between Jewish Passover and Christian Easter, a bomb will explode. (Christiane Büchner)

Andrei Cohn, born in Bucharest in 1972. He trained in fine arts before turning to directing and screenwriting. After making a series of short films in the early 2010s, he directed his first feature Back Home in 2015, followed by Arest in 2019, which was presented in competition at Karlovy Vary and at the Transylvania and Cairo Film Festivals. Holy Week is his third feature film.

Production Anca Puiu. Production company Mandragora (Bukarest, Romania). Director Andrei Cohn. Screenplay Andrei Cohn. Cinematography Andrei Butică. Editing Andrei Iancu, Dana Bunescu. Sound design Daniel Soare, Petre Osman. Production design Cristian Niculescu. Costumes Viorica Petrovici. Make-up Dora Codiță, Nicoleta Handuri. Executive producer Bogdan Zărnoianu. Co-producer Dan Wechsler. Co-production Bord Cadre films. With Doru Bem, Nicoleta Lefter, Ciprian Chiricheș, Mario Gheorghe Dinu, Ana Cioneta.

World sales Shellac

Films: 2009: Inainte si Dupa 22/12/1989 / Before and After 22/12/1989 (short film). 2010: Maica Domnului de la parter / Mother of God on the Ground (short film). 2012: Family Picture (short film). 2015: Acasã la tata / Back Home. 2019: Arest. 2024: Săptămâna Mare / Holy Week.

Bonus Material

Director’s Statement and Interview

  • Film still from "Săptămâna Mare" by Andrei Cohn. It shows a dark room with a man and a child at the window and a woman on the left in the doorway. They are all looking out of the window.

    Director’s Statement

    Andrei Cohn on the themes explored in SĂPTĂMÂNA MARE and how the film positions itself towards history 

  • Film still from "Săptămâna Mare" by Andrei Cohn. It shows a dark room with a man and a child at the window and a woman on the left in the doorway. They are all looking out of the window.

    Interview

    Andrei Cohn in conversation with Barbara Wurm and Irina Bondas about his third feature SĂPTĂMÂNA MARE

Funded by:

  • Logo Minister of State for Culture and the Media
  • Logo des Programms NeuStart Kultur