
HOLY FATHER
a documentary by Andrei DăscălescuWINNER of the Special Jury Award at Sarajevo Film Festival 2020
WINNER of the Audience Award at Astra Film Festival 2020
OFFICIAL SELECTION of Tallinn Black Nights IFF, Trieste Film Festival, Zagreb Dox, GoEast IFF Wiesbaden, Make Dox Skopje
length: 85 min | country: Romania | format: 4K | aspect ratio: 2.39: 1
HOW DO YOU PREPARE TO BECOME A GOOD FATHER WHEN YOU GREW UP WITHOUT ONE?
The filmmaker (Andrei) and his girlfriend (Paula) face the news of becoming parents. While the future mother is struggling with no worthy role models in her broken family, the soon-to-be father must come to terms with his own, long-lost father, now a monk on Mount Athos. Andrei’s visits to the monastery seek to solve the mystery of his father’s leaving the family when Andrei was only six. Could this be the key to learning how to become the father he never had? Meanwhile, as the pregnancy progresses, the quest for answers and reconciliation makes way for something much more meaningful.
The Team

Written, directed and shot by Andrei Dăscălescu
Andrei is an established Romanian documentary film director, cinematographer, and editor. His previous two feature documentaries, Planeta Petrila (2016) and Constantin and Elena (2008), have been selected and awarded in major international film festivals (IDFA – First Appearance Award, Sarajevo, San Francisco, Vancouver, Krakow, Doclisboa, Docaviv, Montpellier). Andrei had 5 nominations and won the Best Documentary prize in 2018 at the Gopo Awards (Romanian Film Industry Awards). He founded Filmlab, his film production company, in 2007.

produced by ANDA IONESCU
With a master’s degree and studies in communication in both Romania and Denmark, Anda has been working in film production and cultural management in the two countries for the past 6 years. Anda is an EAVE (European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs) Ties That Bind alumna (2019), an EAVE+ participant (2020), and a European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA) member. Her filmography as a producer includes Ruxandra Ghițescu’s Otto the Barbarian, Andra Tarara’s Us Against Ourselves and Bogdan Theodor Olteanu’s Mia Misses Her Revenge.
Executive Producer HBO Europe:
Hanka Kastelicová
Producer HBO Romania:
Alina David
Editors:
Ștefan Pârlog, Andrei Dăscălescu
Sound Design:
Dan-Ștefan Rucăreanu, Ioan Filip, Matei Vasilache
Story Consultant:
Roberto Blatt
Stills from the film
Screenings

August 15th, 2020
26th Sarajevo Film Festival, World Premiere [WINNER of Special Jury Award] | Facebook Event
August 22nd, 2020
MakeDox, Skopje, Macedonia, Main Competition | Facebook Event
September 11th, 2020
Astra Film Festival, Sibiu, Romania, International Competition [WINNER of the Audience Award] | Facebook Event
October 31st, 2020
Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest, Online Screening | Facebook Event
November 24th, 2020
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Documentary Competition | Facebook Event
January 24th, 2020
Trieste Film Festival, Italy | Facebook Event
April 21st-28th, 2020
GoEast Film Festival, Wiesbaden, Germany | Facebook Event
June 13th-20th, 2020
Zagreb Dox, Croatia | Facebook Event
+ More to be announced, soon! Stay in touch on social media:
Workshops
2020
Last Stop Trieste, 2020, winner of Last Stop Trieste Award
2019
Docu Rough Cut Boutique, 2019, winner of IDFA Award
2019
East Doc Market
2018
Docs in Thessaloniki
Reviews
Holy Father fluidly moves from the mistakes of the past to the regrets of today, but it lingers with the young parents’ hope for a perfect future for their daughter. They are right to hope, because their slate is still clean.
[read the full review]
Romanian director Andrei Dăscălescu has, with Holy Father, not added to this vast stockpile of scare stories so much as used the documentary form to unravel the inherited baggage he has in his head around the notion of the failed father. He decided to pre-empt any feared catastrophe and started making the wry, intimate, and candid film while his daughter was still in his girlfriend’s womb.
[read the full review]
Andrei Dascalescu is a talented filmmaker who can tell a very personal story in a remarkably universal way. A lot of people will see something of themselves in the doubts of the parents-to-be.
[read the full article]
Press

Sarajevo Film Festival’s Daily Bulletin 03
[interview by Marinela Domančić, published in Festival Daily 03] Mr Dăscălescu, we had the opportunity to see both of your previous feature documentaries here in Sarajevo. Even when you were personally intrigued and involved, they both were observing documentaries. How different was it to work on this film, as it was purely about yourself? With my new film, Holy Father, I reach out to my own father, trying to find answers and reconciliation, while at the same time facing unexpected parenthood with my girlfriend. So, my situation was difficult, and documenting it was always challenging, sometimes even painful. On the other hand, the idea of making this film helped me surface some life-long...
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Contact
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