“Simple Women”, the debut feature film by the Italian female director Chiara Malta, co-produced by Romanian Ada Solomon and starring Romanian-born actress Elina Löwensohn, will be screened starting today in Bucharest (Peasant Museum Cinema, Cinema Union , Cinema City AFI Cotroceni, Happy Cinema), Bistrița (Dacia Cultural Center), Cluj-Napoca (Cinema Victoria), Iași (Cinema Ateneu), Odobești (Odobești House of Culture), Sibiu (Cine Gold), Sfântu Gheorghe (Cinema Arta ), Slobozia (Slobozia House of Culture), Târgu Mureș (Cinema Arta).
The feature film, produced by Vivo Film and Rai Cinema Italia in co-production with microFILM and Romanian Television in collaboration with nomada.solo, which had its national preview at the 19th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival – TIFF, is distributed by microMULTILATERAL, with the support of the National Center of Cinematography.
The film, which premiered worldwide in 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival, stars a young and enthusiastic director. Federica decides to make a film about and with the actress who fascinates her since childhood – Elina Löwensohn. But things are not as simple as they would like.
The cast includes Jasmine Trinca, Elina Löwensohn, Francesco Acquaroli, Anna Malvica, Mirella Mazzeranghi, Betti Pedrazzi, Thomas Bradley, Michael Rodgers, Cosmina Olariu, Ozana Oancea.
“For years I have been convinced that Elina Löwensohn is an American actress. I had seen her in Hal Hartley’s movies. I wasn’t a fan, but I knew who she was: Elina Löwensohn, an American actress. One day we met. She immediately told me she was Romanian. What she told me resounded in my head like an obsessive refrain: “I’m not an American actress, I’m not who you think I am.” The movie “Simple Women” started at that moment. We built the film around the question: “What is behind an image?“, says director Chiara Malta.
The screenplay is written by Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach and Marco Pettenello, the image bears the signature of Tudor Vladimir Panduru. The sound was made by Gianluca Scarlata, the scenography by Massimiliano Nocente, the costumes were taken care of by Loredana Buscemi and Ioachim Stroe and Giogiò Franchini signed the editing. Producers are Marta Donzelli and Gregorio Paonessa and co-producers, Ada Solomon.
Chiara Malta was born in Rome and has lived in Paris since 2002. She graduated in film, theater and media and participated in Ateliers Varan. Her documentary “Armando e la politica” (2008) premiered at the opening of the Turin Film Festival and was broadcast by ZDF and Arte. She has written and directed numerous short films, combining fiction, animation and documentary. “Simple Women“, developed in an artistic residence Villa Medici, Rome, is her first feature film.
Elina Löwensohn is a cosmopolitan American actress, of Romanian origin, and who currently lives in France. She began his career in the early 1990s, starring in Hal Hartley’s famous films “Simple Men” and “Amateur,” Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat,” Michael Almereyda’s “Nadja,” and “Schindler’s List” by Steven Spielberg. “Simple Women” is her second collaboration with Chiara Malta, after the 2015 short film, “L’existence selon Gabriel”.