Across The River

A girl in her twenties, Tincuta, from the Romanian region of Moldava, lives in a village that's at the border with the Republic of Moldava, former Romanian territory. She starts talking online, on a dating site, with a Moldovan man, Alexei, from the village next to her village, separated by the border, which is a river, the River of Prut. They decide to meet at sunset, each of them being on the other side of the shores of the river. As he’s refused his visa entry to Romania, Alexei decides to cross the river in order to see Tincuta. While Tincuta is waiting at the river, Alexei is beaten to death by three Russians. As Alexei had told her that only if he was dead, he wouldn't come to see her, Tincuta withdraws the conclusion that something bad had happened to him. She decides to swim across the river and find him, though she's afraid of swimming...

  • Iulia Nastase
    Director
  • Iulia Nastase
    Writer
  • Iulia Nastase
    Producer
  • Cosmin Pascovici
    Key Cast
  • Iulia Nastase
    Key Cast
  • Alex Popa
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    12 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 7, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    900 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    Canada
  • Language:
    Romanian, Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Short Film Corner, Cannes Film Festival
    Cannes
    France
    May 17, 2016
    International Premiere
  • Move Me Productions Belgium-Short Film Festival
    Antwerpen
    Belgium
    August 7, 2016
  • Yes! Let's make a film festival
    Montreal
    Canada
    September 24, 2016
    Nominee for Best Short Film 2016
  • Cannes Latitude Film Festival
    Pictou, New Scotland
    Canada
    November 12, 2016
    Nominee for Best Short Film 2016
  • Audience Awards'2016 Social Political Short Film Festival
    Missoula, Montana
    United States
  • Cinema World Fest Awards
    Ottawa
    Canada
  • Focus International Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    September 25, 2016
  • Canada Shorts Film Festival, Award of Excellence
    Saint John
    Canada
    December 10, 2016
    Award of Excellence
Director Biography - Iulia Nastase

I am a young Romanian actress and director who speaks a few foreign languages and who had the chance to have acting experiences in Europe and Canada.
After helping a friend for the writing of a scenario in 2015, I decided to put in words what I felt and to write my own scenarios. I think that the cinema industry still lacks the touch of women and that there should be more women as directors, as creators of stories.
As an artist I want to speak about subjects that have an impact on this world, about social and political matters that influence people‘s lives.
Across the River is my first “cinematographic baby” and I am thrilled and emotional to see its progress and reception in the world of festivals.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

After moving to Montreal in 2014, I felt the need to enhance my writing and to express my feelings about my native country, thus the story of Across the River. When I was a child we used to live nearby the Moldavian frontier and we used to watch their tv programs and everything was in Romanian and it seemed awkward to me when my dad explained me that they were Romanians but that they were forced to live in a different country than ours. I was seeing from afar the lights of their houses and that territory was carrying a sort of mystery in it. I wrote the whole story while listening to a folkloric Moldavian song that guided my imagination to what was to become a tragic beautiful story at a separating river.
Across the River offers a modern and romantic insight about former and present conflicts between Romanians and Russians in the Republic of Moldova(former Romanian territory until 1945).
The frontiers of this world keep on changing and within all these movements, all these readjustments, the people’s feelings stay the same. The same actions, the same loves, the same sensations, the same drives, the same fires, the same dances of seduction, the same shy steps and impetuosity. It is the eternal song of love, yet so refreshing, love which never gets old. It is that kind of love that doesn’t care about boundaries imposed by politics, by petty interests. We cannot deny the love existing between two lovers as we cannot deny the union of two territories that speak the same language, that have the same history and that pulsate at the same rhythm.