We Put the World to Sleep
Adrian and Duru get lost in the characters they play in an apocalyptic film and embark on a secret mission to end the world for real.
Second entry in Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel's trilogy which includes Țofei's cult horror movie Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (called "hidden gem and dazzling debut" by IndieWire) and their upcoming feature Pure.
Note: The events and characters are entirely fictional. Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel do not share any similarities with their fictional characters "Adrian" and "Duru".
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Adrian ȚofeiDirectorBe My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)
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Adrian ȚofeiWriterBe My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)
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Duru YücelWriter
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Adrian ȚofeiKey CastBe My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)
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Duru YücelKey CastGrandpas Know Best (2012)
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Erisse PetersonKey Cast
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Andreea EnciuKey CastNo One Gets Out Alive (2021)
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Danha YunesKey Cast
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Adrian ȚofeiProducerBe My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015)
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Duru YücelProducer
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Adrian ȚofeiEditor
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Adrian ȚofeiCinematography
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Adrian ȚofeiProduction Design
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Danha YunesExecutive Producer
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Jay SorensenExecutive Producer
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Ada Taylor HartExecutive Producer
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Ricky ChenExecutive Producer
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Project Type:Feature
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Genres:Metaphysical Drama, Psychological Horror, Apocalyptic Sci-Fi, Thriller, Mystery, Adventure, Dark Romance, Antihero film, Meta-cinema, Psychotronic, Mumblecore, Satire, Mockumentary, Screenlife, Queer cinema, Post-cinema
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Runtime:1 hour 27 minutes
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Completion Date:June 30, 2024
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Country of Origin:Romania
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Country of Filming:Romania, Turkey, Ukraine
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:1.77 : 1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Adrian Țofei (pronounced Tsofei) is a Romanian filmmaker and actor best known for his debut horror feature Be My Cat: A Film for Anne and his upcoming apocalyptic feature We Put the World to Sleep.
IndieWire called Be My Cat: A Film for Anne “a hidden gem, a nonstop nightmare, a chilling character study and a dazzling debut”, Blumhouse said it’s a “new intelligent found footage film you need to see”, and Dread Central named it “revolutionary and dangerous”. Adrian won Best Actor at Nashville Film Festival for his performance in Be My Cat, as well as Best Film at A Night of Horror in Sydney. He directed, produced, wrote and starred in the movie, which premiered in 2015 at Fantasporto, traveled the festival circuit and received critical acclaim (currently 88% fresh on RT), being ultimately released by Terror Films in 2018, and has since attracted a cult following.
Adrian Țofei has been married to actress and writer Duru Yücel since 2017, and they have also become partners onscreen in their feature We Put the World to Sleep, an international coproduction 7 years in the making and their most ambitious project to date.
This is the second entry in a trilogy made together with my wife, actress and writer Duru Yücel. All three movies are very different in style and substance, yet forming a cohesive universe. "Be My Cat: A Film for Anne" is anchored in irrational instincts and impulses, "We Put the World to Sleep" in the conscious rational mind, and "Pure" in mysteries beyond reason.
Duru Yücel and I met in 2015 at the Bosphorus Film Festival in Istanbul, and around that time we began developing We Put the World to Sleep. We shot it over a period of 5 years in 13 cities, villages and remote locations across Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, using a diverse international cast (Black American, Latin American, East European, Turkish) and touching on issues our world is racing towards. It’s by far the most ambitious, difficult and disturbing project we ever did, facing numerous challenges over the years and taking a toll on our personal lives as well due to the extensive periods of living in character (ironically, the movie deals with similar themes).
One of the goals was to combine the metaphysics of "2001: A Space Odyssey" with the realism of "The Blair Witch Project", two of the movies that impressed and influenced me the most as a filmmaker. The script mostly consisted of plot points. After creating and maintaining an alternative psychological reality for our characters, we shot about 150 hours of footage improvising guerrilla style, then came up with the details of the story in post-production while editing.