ADALBERT'S DREAM by Romanian filmmaker Gabriel Achim

When I met Romanian director Gabriel Achim, we had just pruned together for hours in Iceland's famed Blue Lagoon thermal baths, so needless to say we were dehydrated, uber relaxed and giddy. I asked him why he was at RIFF and he explained, 'Well, I'm a Romanian director'. I told him I knew lots of great Romanian directors and then he, ever so humbly, assured me that he was the worst Romanian director that exists. I laughed and I think that was his desired reaction. He wears his modesty well, despite being introduced as a cross between Lynch and Kubrick; alas, he professed, 'I want to be referred to as a Gabriel Achim'. Well, time can only tell but for now he will have to live with the fame that will undoubtedly come after having made his film ADALBERT'S DREAM (Visul Lui Adalbert, 2011), a film that Gabriel attests... 'Well, if you like intellectual porn then you will like my film...' INTELLECTUAL PORN??? Pardon? LOL. Well, can't wait to see this one! It's doing the festival circuit now and audiences are loving it. See you in Thessaloniki at TIFF, Gabriel, and let's talk again then! :-)

written by Vanessa McMahon, October 02, 2011

ADALBERT'S DREAM (Visul Lui Adalbert, 2011) by Gabriel Achim, Romania, 2011 (2010 TIFF Works in Progress and 2009 TIFF Crossroads participant)

From TIFF PRESS RELEASE"Set near the end of Ceausescu's regime, two weeks after Chernobyl and on the day after Romanian football's most legendary moment (Steaua Bucharest beating Barcelona in the 1986 Euro Cup), Adalbert’s Dream was shot with old VHS technology to achieve the look of the era, a technique that works exceptionally well for this satirical film. Its protagonist, a factory worker and amateur filmmaker, lives in a world where everything good is credited to the Communist party, an irony that seeps into everything in life, big and small." TIFF PRESS RELEASE....