''Closer to the Moon'' ( ro, Mai aproape de lună) is a 2013 Romanian-American comedy-drama film written and directed by

Nae Caranfil Nae Caranfil (; also Nicolae Caranfil) (born 7 September 1960) is a Romanian film director and screenwriter. Career Born in Bucharest, Nae Caranfil is the son of important Romanian film historian and critic Tudor Caranfil. He graduated in 1984 fr ...

, and starring

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Come ...

Mark Strong Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in ''RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (20 ...

Harry Lloyd Harry Charles Salusbury Lloyd (born 17 November 1983) is an English actor. His performance in the Channel 4 miniseries '' The Fear'' (2012) earned him a British Academy Television Award nomination. He gained prominence through his roles as Wil ...

, Joe Armstrong,

Tim Plester Timothy Marc Plester (born 10 September 1970) is a British actor, playwright, and filmmaker, best known for the documentaries '' Way of the Morris'' and '' The Ballad of Shirley Collins'' - plus a multifarious number of cameo roles for film and ...

, Christian McKay, and

Anton Lesser Anton Lesser (born 14 February 1952) is an English actor. He is well known for his roles as Qyburn in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', as Thomas More in '' Wolf Hall'', as Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in ''The Crown'', as Prime Ministe ...

. Based on the true story of the

Ioanid Gang The Ioanid Gang ( ro, Banda Ioanid) is the name given by Communist propaganda to a group in Communist Romania named after two of its members, Alexandru and Paul Ioanid. They were accused of carrying out on 28 July 1959 the most famous bank robbery ...

, it is one of the most expensive productions in Romanian cinema. It had its world premiere at the Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema Festival at the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

on November 29, 2013. The film was released in Romania on March 7, 2014, and was given a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unit ...

in the United States on April 17, 2015 by Sundance Selects.

Plot

Post-war

Communist Romania The Socialist Republic of Romania ( ro, Republica Socialistă România, RSR) was a Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist state that existed officially in Romania from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peop ...

: In 1959

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...

, members of Romania's high society Max Rosenthal (

), Alice Bercovich (

), Dumi Dorneanu (

), Răzvan Orodel ( Joe Armstrong) and Iorgu Ristea ( Christian McKay), known collectively as

, announce to a crowd that they are shooting a film. A young café worker, Virgil (

), is among the witnesses. Under the guise of making this film, the Ioanid Gang perform a heist of the

National Bank of Romania The National Bank of Romania ( ro, Banca Națională a României, BNR) is the central bank of Romania and was established in April 1880. Its headquarters are located in the capital city of Bucharest. The National Bank of Romania is responsible ...

. The following day, Virgil loiters around a film set and encounters the director, Flaviu (

Allan Corduner Allan Corduner (; born 2 April 1950) is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol Universi ...

), who requests him to buy vodka and give it to him whenever he asks. Eight months before the heist took place, Max, Dumi, Iorgu and Răzvan, heroes of the resistance during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, celebrate New Year's Eve and the start of 1959. Max is divorcing his wife, Sonia ( Monica Bîrlădeanu). Alice returns from Moscow with her and Max's son, Mirel (Marcin Walewski), in tow. She re-introduces Mirel to his father, and they begin to bond. One night, the Gang celebrates Dumi's birthday and reminisce about their early lives as revolutionaries. For fun, they plot the heist in order to rile up anti-Communist Romania, but then realize that Max is taking their conversation seriously. He convinces Dumi, Iorgu and Răzvan to join him, but Alice says no as she has to raise Mirel. She changes her mind, however, when she learns that Mirel wants to join as the fifth person. Alice becomes enraged during the robbery when she sees Mirel filming it. After a couple of months, Iorgu unintentionally implicates himself, and the group is individually located and arrested by Comrade Holban (

) and his police officers. Their arrests happen on the same day as the ''

Luna 2 ''Luna 2'' ( rus, Луна 2}), originally named the Second Soviet Cosmic Rocket and nicknamed Lunik 2 in contemporaneous media, was the sixth of the Soviet Union's Luna programme spacecraft launched to the Moon, E-1 No.7. It was the first spac ...

'' landing on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width ...

. One year later, Virgil is an experienced camera assistant. He is called in by his boss, who informs him of a short film about to start production. Virgil is assigned to record it. It is then revealed that the film is a propaganda piece about the Ioanid Gang's crime. The group, who have been convicted and are awaiting their execution, are ordered by the

Securitate The Securitate (, Romanian for ''security'') was the popular term for the Departamentul Securității Statului (Department of State Security), the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. Previously, before the communist regi ...

to star in the film. Later, Virgil informs Flaviu that he was present during the robbery and its danger has been greatly exaggerated by the authorities. When the Gang arrive for filming, Alice begins to bond with Virgil. When Flaviu gets drunk and passes out, Max takes over directing. While setting up a shot, he secretly gives Virgil contact details for the Gang's loved ones, requesting he contact them to let them know the group is alive and in prison. Later, Virgil makes an anonymous call to the first person on the list, and continues to do so with the help of his landlord Moritz (

David de Keyser David de Keyser (22 August 1927 – 20 February 2021) was an English actor and narrator. Life and career Born in London in August 1927, in the mid-sixties de Keyser worked twice with the writer, actor and director Jane Arden. Their first coll ...

). One night, Virgil is taken to Holban's house. Holban reveals that he knows Virgil has been doing favours for the Gang, and asks him to keep doing so in order to win their trust. He asks Virgil to find the sixth member of the group, Alice's son, as the Gang will be executed soon. During a commotion on set one day, Alice slips away. Virgil follows her to a house, where she says goodbye to her son. Afterwards, they have dinner at Virgil's house and sleep together. The next morning, Alice surrenders to the guards keeping surveillance outside, and leaves Virgil with sealed instructions. Virgil is approached by Holban and asked to write the address of Mirel, but he feigns unawareness. Max's ex-brother-in-law (

Darrell D'Silva Darrell Fitzgerald D'Silva (born 5 January 1964) is a British film and theatre actor, notable for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Early life and education D'Silva was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. He is of Italian, Portugu ...

) arrives and relieves Holban of duty due to negligence and exhaustion. Max asks him to send the Gang into space instead of executing them, but he angrily retorts that astronauts should be heroes and not traitors. Alice's letter asks Virgil to organize Mirel's Bar Mitzvah, which he does. Iorgu, Dumi, Răzvan and Max are sent before the firing squad. In voiceover, Alice says that, at the last moment, her sentence was changed to life imprisonment because she had fallen

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ...

. The audience is then told that Alice emigrated to Israel with Mirel and her daughter.

Cast

as Alice Bercovich *

as Max Rosenthal *

as Virgil *

as Comrade Holban * Christian McKay as Iorgu Ristea *

as Dumitru "Dumi" Dorneanu * Joe Armstrong as Răzvan Orodel * Marcin Walewski as Mirel Bercovich *

as Minister * Stuart McQuarrie as Dumitru Dămăceanu * Monica Bîrlădeanu as Sonia Rosenthal *

as Flaviu *

as Moritz Zilber *

Frances Cuka Frances Cuka (21 August 193616 February 2020) was an English actress, principally on television, whose career spanned over sixty years. In her later years, she was best known for playing Grandma in the sitcom ''Friday Night Dinner'' from 2011 to ...

as Sarah Zilber * Andrew Buckley as Gogu * Martin Hancock as Prosecutor *

John Henshaw John Joseph Henshaw (born August 1950) is a British actor, best known for his roles as Ken Dixon the landlord in '' Early Doors'', Wilf Bradshaw in '' Born and Bred'' and PC Roy Bramwell in '' The Cops.'' Often associated with characters who ar ...

as Judge *

Gwyneth Keyworth Gwyneth Anjuli Keyworth (born 15 September 1990) is a Welsh actress. She was born in Aberystwyth and began acting in a local Welsh language youth theatre group. She went on to appear with the National Youth Theatre. Since graduating from the Ro ...

as Lidia *

Paul Jesson Paul Jesson is an English stage, television and film actor and an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has played leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, RSC and won th ...

as Studio Manager * Ionut Grama as Boris

Production

The film was written and directed by

, and produced by Michael Fitzgerald, Denis Friedman, Renata Rainieri, Alessandro Leone and Bobby Paunescu through the production company Mandragora Movies. In August 2011, it was announced that

and

had been cast in leading roles as Alice Bercovich and Max Rosenthal, respectively. Later that month, it was reported that

had joined the cast in the role of Virgil. The rest of the cast consisted of

, Joe Armstrong, Christian McKay, Monica Bîrlădeanu,

and Stuart McQuarrie.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

took place in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

in late 2011. The production budget of the film has been estimated to be approximately US$5 million or €4.4 million.

Distribution

Release

The film had its world premiere on November 29, 2013 at the Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema Festival at the

, before being released in

n cinemas on March 7, 2014. The film screened at the Romanian Film Festival in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on November 13, 2014. It was then released in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

on March 13, 2015, and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

by Sundance Selects on April 17, 2015. The film screened at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on May 2, 2015. The film was released in a

and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

by Neo (New Entertainment Organization) in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

on November 13, 2015.

Home media

The film was released on DVD in the United States on September 15, 2015. That same day, it was made available for streaming on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

Reception

Box office

The film made $5,396 from its sole theatrical screening in the United Kingdom.

Critical response

The film received a mostly mixed reception from film critics. On review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film received an approval rating of 46%, based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film was given a rating average of 47 out of 100, based on 6 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Ronnie Scheib of '' Variety'' said, "A strange but true Romanian bank robbery provides inspiration for this darkly comic tale of history and its myriad interpretations. Shot in English with a mainly British and American cast, this surprisingly entertaining black comedy could connect with American udiences" John DeFore of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' wrote, "Though based on a true story, the film discards some of its claim to authenticity right off the bat, casting Brits and Americans in all the leads and having them speak English instead of Romanian; later, it will have trouble establishing the gang's motives for a crime they all but knew would lead to their execution. Stateside potential is modest for the semi-convincing yet enjoyable tale, relying on familiar names in a cast that acquits itself well given the demands of the unusual plot." Tara Karajica of Altcine.com wrote, "As far as the acting is concerned, the cast, mainly British and

among many others, is evenly exceptional. The technical details as well as Doina Levinta's costumes and the choice of music are also top-notch. All in all, ''Closer to the Moon'', with its tragico-burlesque tone, stellar cast and Caranfil's new and uncompromising vision is a bold, edifying and marvelous history lesson as well as a courageous contribution not only to the Romanian New Wave but also to cinema in general."

Accolades

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Closer to the Moon 2013 films 2010s crime comedy-drama films American crime comedy-drama films Films directed by Nae Caranfil Films shot in Romania Films shot in Bucharest English-language Romanian films Romanian comedy-drama films Romanian crime films 2013 comedy films 2013 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films