Malul Vânăt/ A River’s Gaze, the feature debut of Romanian director Andreea Cristina Borţun and the first Romanian project produced and financed by Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan, is set to premiere across seven major international festivals as part of the SMART7 competition, a network supported by the Creative Europe Programme.
The anthropological drama marks the first installment of a trilogy exploring love in rural environments. It stands out in Romanian cinema for its hybrid approach: over 60% of the cast consists of non-professional actors from the southern Romanian villages where Borţun conducted six years of immersive field research (2017–2022). Filming took place across four seasons to capture the full cycle of rural life and nature.
Set in a village in southern Romania, the film follows Lavinia, an impulsive mother searching for love and stability, and her 14-year-old son Dani, against the backdrop of migration to Western Europe and shifting social realities. As Lavinia dreams of turning their modest home into a “palace” under bluer skies, the narrative unfolds through closeness and rupture, under the silent gaze of a river that becomes both witness and metaphor. The boundary between documentary and fiction is deliberately blurred, as the lived experiences of the amateur actors seep into their characters.
Borţun, a filmmaker, visual researcher and lecturer at the Universitatea Naţională de Artă Teatrală şi Cinematografică „I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest, has previously had her work selected at major festivals including the Festival de Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), Toronto International Film Festival and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Her practice combines anthropological research with a hybrid cinematic language oscillating between fiction and documentary.
“The story is rooted in a six-year immersive research process in rural southern Romania,” Borţun said. “Working with artistic research tools borrowed from anthropological fieldwork felt intuitive and necessary. The amateur actors brought me closer again to a space I had grown up in but moved away from. They bring themselves to the screen first and foremost, and that authenticity endures.”
Producer Gabi Suciu emphasized the team’s ethical production approach. Rather than entering the village as a disruptive external force, the crew integrated into the community by building a house, cultivating a garden, and working alongside locals through seasonal challenges. The film also addresses, with nuance, the fragile and often unspoken dynamics between Roma and non-Roma communities, avoiding stereotypes in favor of layered human portrayals.
The film enters the SMART7 competition, an alliance of seven prominent European festivals: Reykjavik International Film Festival, IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris, FILMADRID International Film Festival, Transilvania International Film Festival and New Horizons International Film Festival. The winner will be announced at Thessaloniki IFF. Notably, the second project in Borţun’s trilogy, The Life and Times of Ion G, received the ARTE Cinema Award in 2025 during its development phase.
Malul Vânăt/ A River’s Gaze is a Romania-France-Slovenia co-production involving Atelier de Film, Films de Force Majeure, Perfo, TETA, Forest Film and Avanpost. The project was co-financed by Eurimages, the MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe, Romania’s National Film Center (CNC), Aide aux Cinémas du Monde (CNC France/Institut Français), Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and the Slovenian Film Centre, alongside private partners including BRD Groupe Société Générale and Jidvei.
Developed through international platforms such as LIM – Less is More, First Films First, Cinelink Sarajevo and Venice Production Bridge, the film will be released in Romanian cinemas on July 3, distributed by Follow Art Distribution.
With its research-driven method, ethical production model and strong international backing, Malul Vânăt/ A River’s Gaze positions itself as one of the most ambitious Romanian debuts of the year—bridging local rural realities with the global arthouse circuit.