RESENTMENT 2018

“Reached her 30’s, Galina is looking for true love, but instead she finds a soldier dedicated to war.”
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How the movie was made

“RESENTMENT” is my first feature film project. My passion to make films, coupled with an impatience for waiting or applying for sponsorships, motivated me to go to London to earn money. I worked in a clothing retail store for four months, often doing overtime, working 7 days a week. It was a busy and challenging work, but I was happy to do it, since I had to follow my ultimate goal – film making, which involved making considerable initial investment. In the summer of 2014, while I was working late evenings on the script, I applied for “Berlinale Talents” and was invited to “A Sunday in a country” organized by European Film Academy, which took place in September 2014. It was an honor to be among such talented filmmakers and having the opportunity to pitch my script for the first time. The initial feedback I received was that the screenplay was too long for a short film and too short for a feature. I could not remove anything from the story, so it was clearly a call for a feature film.
My team was already waiting for me back home, knowing I am willing to make a short film. Nobody was ready for a feature, so we started filming some scenes for a teaser, in order to apply for sponsorships, but there was no way we could stop until we can get a final product. We needed more funds for production expenses; even if everyone was ready to work unpaid, there was no way to finish a feature film, the story of which takes place in the 90s, with an extra low budget.
I was fortunate to be a Talent at Berlinale in February 2015, exactly 2 months after we started the film shooting. It was my chance to meet with the producers, to pitch them the story. I was new to the film market, I spread around posters and CDs, I talked to Talents and a couple of producers, but there was no way I could reach out to the big world of cinema; however, I was extremely motivated to return to work, and finish my film, as I was confident about its success.
A war film with no war scenes.
My mentor and former teacher, Mircea Chistruga, has been encouraging me all the way. After reading countless versions of the screenplay, he was happy to read the final version and suggested me to replace the second half by adding the Transnistrian war. He said: “Natalia, you chose perfectly the period of time to develop a story, if you add this historical moment, the film will be phenomenal”.
At the pre-production stage, being the script writer and the producer, I had to cut all the exterior scenes, to minimize the expenses. But how was I to create a war film with no budget? This is when I decided to use Radio, TV and Newspapers as storytellers in the movie, to replace the war scenes that usually require significant investments.
The first thing that we had to tell to actors and non-actors who came to the casting, was that it is a no budget film, but it is a great story.

We had a long production period, I planned shooting days a month or two in advance, to make sure each crew member would be available, as they had to work beside the “RESENTMENT PROJECT”.
The work on this movie was a real-time workshop for each crew member; we became a large close-knit family, where everyone was working with passion and dedication for arts and culture, striving for the best outcome, not for a financial remuneration.
Finally, it was over, or so we thought!
After putting all the pieces together, at the end of 2015 we were able to watch the movie. Everybody agreed to get back to the
production process and to add back to the screenplay the previously excluded scenes. The action in film takes place during various seasons of the year, we had to wait for winter, spring and summer to shoot the exterior scenes. In the meantime, I did freelance editing job to earn money to invest in this film.
It wouldn’t have been possible making this film without people’s help with either old clothing they had from those times, or props, shooting locations. Most of the crew members were students, so it wasn’t a problem to have a letter from the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts sent to many companies that we require help (ex: “UAZ” old car that was used in the past for military purposes now is used by a telecommunications company). We also had a bus from the City’s bus facility and had the police to regulate the traffic for us. This is a movie where the entire society had an input on, sometimes even being unaware of their contribution. It was great!

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_{Director’s Statement}

I was at my cousin’s birthday party when my aunt began to tell a funny and sad story about her pregnancy, birth day and her husband.
I started to write the screenplay.
Galina, in her 30s, living with her aunt and desperate for a child, married Andrei. He turned out to be a veteran of soviet-afghan war with post-traumatic stress disorder. This story brought me to the 90’s. I started to research that period. I thought it will be great to make him a soldier that doesn’t fit in a peaceful time, so here I got the solution for the second part of the film: Transnistrian war.
The Transnistrian political conflict began in 1990, soon after the independence of the self- proclaimed “Transnistrian Moldovan Republic”, whose latent stage is still continuing.
The film “Resentment” evokes some memories, sometimes painful ones, about Moldovan people’s life of that time. It presents a love story wiped out by political and military events. This film reflects the daily life of many families in similar situations around the globe, regardless of the continent, religion or race.
I believe art is the best way to motivate people to investigate and discover themselves. By bringing on the screen the real life events of 90s that happened in Moldova, this movie intends to enhance people’s awareness about their past and the consequences that can affect our future.