„Untamed Romania” documentary, in Romanian theaters as of April 13. President Iohannis attended the preview on Wednesday

„Untamed Romania” documentary, probably the first feature documentary exclusively dedicated to the wild nature in our country, will hit the theaters countrywide starting April 13, running in 70 cinemas from 37 cities. The documentary, made by British production house Off the Fence, produced and offered by Auchan Retail Romania and The European Nature Trust and distributed by Transilvania Film, had the preview at the Bucharest National Theatre on March 21, in a large event attended by 900 spectators and personalities of all fields, such as President Klaus Iohannis, Princess Maria of Romania, actors, film makers, athletes and musicians.

Designed as a gift for Romanians, in the year when Romania is celebrating its centennial anniversary, the documentary is a unique project revealing the natural beauties hidden in the Carpathian Mountains and Danube Delta.

The film has made its international debut on March 18 in Washington, at an ecological film festival and is also to be presented in London, at the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) gala on April 12.

„Some things must be pardoned as they are” – is the message the film conveys. It is an invitation to knowledge, responsibility, and appreciation, as well as an urge to support the environment causes, stating that we are not the authors of nature, but we are responsible for preserving it in good shape, so that future generations can also enjoy it in the future.

The documentary is inviting all of us for a journey depicting one year from the life of various plants, insects and animals in Romania, crossing all four seasons, all disclosing the fabulous natural life in our country, an outburst of wildness that shelters so many creatures. Infinite mountains, ancient forests, endless rivers, all are hosting landmark creatures for our continent, whose destinies are dictated by the beautiful four seasons.

The documentary is providing a thorough glimpse of the wild life in the deep Carpathian forests, underwater or across the Danube Delta’s channels, where the human eye can hardly intrude, with legendary animals fighting for food, mating or just survival, ranging from the tensed moments of action and fight to the lovingly and funny play of the cubbs.

You wouldn’t guess that such a wild life really exists in our country, but the “Untamed Romania” is a vivid proof, besides the well-known statistics (5,000 bears are living in Romania at present, while over a third  of the plants in Europe are hosted by the Carpathians, not to mention those about 5,800 wolves in Romania, one of the largest population of wolves in Europe).

According to the Auchan retail Romania general manager, Ionut Ardeleanu, now in his quality as executive producer of the documentary, „there is more than a film in „Untamed Romania”. „Next to our 10,000 colleagues from Auchan Retail Romania, today, celebrating 100 years of the Romanian state, we come with a gift for all Romanians! It’s a gift that we want to offer to the Education Ministry-we’d be glad to be able to distribute the film across schools, where the seeds of the joy to live in this country must be planted; to the Romanian diplomacy-for we want to make it available to all embassies and consulates of the country; to the tourism and environment institutions-we hope we can therefore contribute to promoting Romania in the world,” Auchan GM said.

In his turn, actor Victor Rebengiuc, narrator of the documentary, said: „It’s a special film filled with love for nature, poetry and for things we only suspect, but which we have never seen. That’s why they are called untamed.”

At the end of the preview, the audience also met some of the film producers of the Off the Fence company.

Ellen Windemuth, executive producer, revealed that the entire team has fallen in love with Romania after shooting the documentary and that a new project is under way.

„When we came to Romania we couldn’t believe the beauty of this country, and all the animals. And I wondered what it would be like to watch your own home through the lens of other people?

I thought that if it were me, I would hope that, in a way, it will feel like I am experiencing my country a little bit new all over again.

Anyway, we liked it so much that we are not going away, we’ve already started our next project, a series called „Rewilding Europe”. We’ll be filmming here this year for National Geographic and I think we are not the only people who have fallen in love with Romania, National Geographic has as well,” she confessed.

Director Thomas-Barton Humphreys said „it’s been a pleasure filmming here”. „I will definitely be back for a holiday rather for work… you have a really beautiful country and I hope it stays that way,” he added.

Attending the preview there were also producer Allison Bean, Nainita Desai, music composer and Sarah Titcombe, production assistant.