TIFF 2018 remakes Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ with two Romanian renowned actresses

The promotion campaign of the 17th edition of the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) is reproducing the poster and one of the iconic scenes in Ingmar Bergman’s masterpieces, Persona, re-interpreted by two renowned Romanian actresses, Maia Morgenstern and Oana Pellea.

It’s not only a homage paid to the legendary Swedish filmmaker, to whom TIFF dedicates a retrospective this year, 100 years since his birth, but also a visual campaign.

The clash on the edge between an actress who has taken refuge in dumbness (Liv Ullmann) and her nurse (Bibi Andersson) is the focus of the black and white film directed by Bergman in 1966. In 2018, Maia Morgenstern and Oana Pellea are recreating one of the key scenes in Persona, which is iconic for the interdependence relationship between the two characters. It’s a curtesy interpretation, spiced with a discrete Translvania-like twist, where the personality transfer is taking the shape of a vampire-like relation.

„I accepted the TIFF’s proposal for three reasons: it’s a festival I have always admired and supported since its first edition, I adore Ingmar Bergman and I adore Maia. I like the final result and I was right to accept this challenge,” said Oana Pellea.

As for Maia Morgestern, it was a paradox. „A circle has closed to me. It was a coincidence the fact that I first met the script of Persona when, during college, I had a retake with a scene from this great film-that I saw later on. To recreate this scene with Oana, (…) was an essential journey through the love for cinema and for this profession. The more it has been occassioned by TIFF (…),”Maia Morgenstern said.

TIFF 2018 main visual will be launched on the festival’s Facebook page soon, with the two actresses starring together on the big screen for the first time.

TIFF 2018 is due in Cluj-Napoza, during May 25-June 3.