The film Reostat/Heist of the Century, directed by Teodora Ana Mihai, based on a script by Cristian Mungiu, made its international debut this fall.
After winning the Best Film Award at the Warsaw International Film Festival in October, it also received the Best Actress Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival yesterday.
The prize was awarded to Anamaria Vartolomei, a French actress of Romanian origin, in her first role in a Romanian film. Anamaria Vartolomei is a rising star in world cinema. In 2022, he was awarded the César Award for Best Hope of French Cinema after his performance in L’Événement (dir. Audrey Diwan) the Golden Lion winning film at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Following this award, Anamaria’s career exploded, she received important roles such as those in L’Empire (dir. Bruno Dummont, Berlin 2024), Maria (dir. Jessica Palud, Cannes 2024), The Count of Monte Cristo (dir. Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte, Cannes 2024) or in Mickey 17 (dir. Bong Joon-ho) which will be released in 2025 and where he acts alongside Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo.
The award at the Tokyo International Film Festival was presented by actress Chiara Mastroianni, on behalf of the jury led by actor Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love).
Accepting the award, Anamaria Vartolomei said: “It is fitting to share this award with all my colleagues on the set. I have rarely seen more involved people. It was also a learning process for me to work with you on my first role in Romanian, and I’m glad that it was in a film made by such a wonderful team.”
In its commentary, the American magazine Variety characterized the film as “the story of a couple from Romania who find themselves involved in an art theft against the backdrop of the economic and social discrepancy between Western and Eastern Europe”, while the Hollywood Reporter notes that “the film is inspired by true events and starring Anamaria Vartolomei, who moves with her film husband to the Netherlands in search of a better life”, but ends up becoming an anonymous migrant on the fringes of Western society, like many others are in the same situation.
Reostat, presented internationally under the title Traffic, is inspired by the break-in committed by a group of Romanians at the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam, in 2012.
Seven high-value paintings were stolen in less than three minutes, among them works signed by Matisse and Picasso. The ‘heist of the century’ ended a few months later with the arrest of the suspects, but the paintings were never recovered. Even today it is not known whether they were burned, hidden or sold on the black market.
Natalia and Ginel leave their small Romanian Danube village to work abroad in a big Flemish city. One evening, when she is assaulted after meeting a local, Natalia asks Ita, a friend from home turned into a crook, to help her.
After the screening in Warsaw, CineEuropa identified the main theme of the film as questioning the effects of colonialism by white Europeans, who captured countless works of art for their own use and who now revolt against the invasion of what they categorize as the new migrations. “Survival is a matter that is achieved with tears and sweat, but the film also knows when it is good to treat the unfairness of the world with humor” – CineEuropa.
Along with Anamaria Vartolomei, the main roles in the film are played by Ionuț Niculae, Rareș Andrici, Macrina Bîrlădeanu, Thomas Ryckewaert and Mike Libanon. Marius Panduru is the cinematographer of the film, and Tudor Reu, its producer. The film is a Romania-Belgium-Netherlands co-production, made by Mindset Productions, Lunanime, Bastide Films, Les Films du Fleuve, Film i Väst, Filmgate Films, Avanpost Media and Mobra Films.
Reostat. The Heist of the Century will hit cinemas in March 2025, being distributed by Forum Film.