Closer to the Moon
Bucharest 1959. A spectacular Bank heist has the country in an uproar. In post-war Communist Romania it is an unimaginable slap in the face to the iron fisted authorities. Four men and a woman are arrested, tried, convicted and while waiting for their execution... are forced to star in a propaganda film about the crime. All five protagonists were heroes of the resistance during the Second World War and highly placed members of Romanian society. They clearly knew they would be caught and executed.
Shown at
- 18th CAJE Miami Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- 23rd Toronto Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- 25th Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- Atlanta Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- Festival Internacional de Cine Judío Caracas - 2015
- Jewish International Film Festival (Australia) - 2015
- UK Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- Vancouver Jewish Film Festival - 2015
- Virginia Festival of Jewish Film - 2016
Would really like to buy a DVD of this film.
The movie will be available on DVD and Instant Video on Amazon.com on September 15, 2015. Both options are linked above.
Israeli expat brings international art films to East Bay
This month’s selection, “Closer to the Moon” (opening Friday, Aug. 14), wittily revisits the bizarre 1959 incident in which five middle-aged, disillusioned Romanian Jewish veterans of the anti-Nazi resistance robbed the national bank — in the guise of shooting a movie — as an act of political protest.
The Romanian secret police added to the absurdity by forcing the band of intellectual friends —who had been convicted in a show trial and given death sentences — to participate in a film re-enacting their raid. Mark Strong (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) and Vera Farmiga (“Bates Motel”) play the charismatic heads of the gang, while Harry Lloyd (“Game of Thrones”) plays a young waiter who becomes the lead cameraman for the “official” movie.
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/75402/bizarre-romanian-jewish-tale-on-the-big-screen-in-orinda/