In 2018 Student Hub continues the series of cultural events with Masterclass #2: Book-to-film adaptation, a workshop about making a film based on a novel. Ivana Mladenovic and Adrian Schiop will talk about their latest project: ‘Soldiers. Story from Ferentari’.

As you probably already know, Romanian Film Development planned since its beginnings to organize masterclasses dedicated to both students and cinephiles, through which they would develop professionally and meet local filmmakers. Moreover, they would have the chance to discover industry insights from the speakers’ experiences.

After a long break, we are coming back with the second Student Hub masterclass: ‘Book-to-film adaptation’ with Ivana Mladenovic and Adrian Schiop.

‘Soldiers. Story from Ferentari’ is the fiction feature film debut of Ivana Mladenovic, based on the book with the same name signed by Adrian Schiop. The film’s national premiere took place on February 2^nd, and tells the story of Adi (played by Adrian Schiop), a 40-year-old anthropologist, who recently got dumped by his girlfriend and moved to Ferentari, to write a study on manele music. There he meets Alberto, a poor Roma ex-convict, who promises Adi to help him meet the singers. Soon enough, the two begin a playful romance in which Adi feeds Alberto with improbable plans of escaping poverty, while Alberto feeds Adi with phrases of love.

What does the adaption of a book mean, what are the challenges, what to keep and what to exclude? These are only some of the subjects which will be discussed during the workshop. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, when the participants are encouraged to interact with the speakers.

The workshop will take place on February 22^nd, 2018, at 7:00 PM, at CINETic Centre. The entrance is free, but the number of seats is limited.

To register, send an email at events@romfilmdevelopment.org with the subject Registration Masterclass #2, with your first name, last name and the university you are studying at.

Based on availability of seats, the masterclass is also opened for the film professionals or cinephiles who want to discover the world from behind the screen.

Here you can find more details about the event.

For more information about the film, you can read our #behindthescreen interview with Ivana Mladenovic.

The students interested in our future events are invited to visit our Student Hub page, where they can subscribe to our newsletter, to be the first to receive the latest news.

Ivana Mladenovic was born in Serbia and moved to Romania where she graduated in Film Directing at the National School of Film and Theatre ‘I.L. Caragiale’. Her short films were selected and awarded at various film festivals around the world. After her documentary feature film debut, ‘Turn off the Lights’ (2012), Ivana came back in 2017 with ‘Soldiers. Story from Ferentari’, a bold project which was well-received at the international film festivals from San Sebastian, Toronto, Namur and Rotterdam.

Adrian Schiop, former Romanian teacher, journalist, writer, with a PHD in manele music, publishes in 2013 his third Autofiction novel called ‘Soldiers. Story from Ferentari’. Later, he writes a script based on the book together with Ivana, and plays the role of Adi in the film.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.