October 27: A Found Footage Horror Film That Isn’t From America, Japan or the UK

Director and actor Adrian Țofei plays someone who I hope is not all himself, a director and actor that wants to make a movie with Anne Hathaway so badly that he films a found footage camcorder proof of concept with three local actresses, Sonya (Sonia Teodoriu), Flory (Florentina Hariton) and Alexandra (Alexandra Stroe).

The creator comes from a background in method acting and theatre. On a small budget, he was the director, producer, writer, lead actor, editor, cinematographer and most other jobs usually performed by a film crew. He had never shot with a camera before and met the actresses for the first time while they were doing the movie. He also only kept the original takes in his final cut. This was all set up with months of online preparation.

I really think that he’s a maniac.

His filmmaking method? Working for months on an alternative psychological reality for the actors including himself so that when they start to improvise, he just records it. The action is shot in English and the safe word is basically shifting dialogue to Romanian.

Țofei developed this character over 5 years, first as a monologue and then as a one man school he called The Monster. When he decided to make the movie, he moved back home and started living the same life as the character to get into his head.

Basically, Adrian is in love with Anne Hathaway to the point that no other woman will do. Notably he doesn’t have sex with any of these women in his movie, as he belongs only to Anne. What follows is some of the most disturbing cinema I’ve seen in some time, moments so cringe-worthy that I felt like I couldn’t stop thinking about them. What a strange film and I hope it was really just a movie and not Țofei working out his real obsession.

I wonder if Anne has seen it.

You can watch this on Tubi.