JOANNA’S KITCHEN

Joanna’s Kitchen is an experimental dramedy short film. Because this short film is also a thriller, a podcast, and a contamination of new media, reducing it to a limited definition is impossible. An aspiring chef introduces her weekly culinary podcast, Joanna’s Kitchen, in this clever short film. Today: coq au vin. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that she is quite tense, behaving a bit clumsily and confused. A few minutes later, her phone rings. Someone on the other end of the line corrects her about certain details of the recipe. Through a combination of humor, genuine cooking, and a hidden mystery, Joanna finishes her coq au vin in a frenzied manner, while inserting specific, stressed words among clichéd utterances from the recipe. Her last call takes her away from the camera, so we only hear what actually happened: she was forced to say all those words during the podcast by someone who had kidnapped her child. Now that the work is done, she can take her child back. Over time, we learn that all those words and formulae Joanna mentioned were encoded messages for terrorists planning a bomb attack that evening. There is no conclusion to the story in the tone of the comedy that runs throughout the short film. Ioana Marcoiu, the only actress in the film, does an excellent job of portraying tension. She is perfectly able to keep the audience’s attention while presenting a French cuisine recipe and performing the “invisible” tasks of a hidden plot. The director directed her very well, and she was a perfect choice for this short film. Another great point of this film is the script. It could maybe be a little shorter, but it is very effective in keeping the atmosphere of a normal podcast while something extremely dangerous is going on. Coherent with this dynamic film, the cinematography is colorful, although some shadows seem overpowering among the colors. The editing and effects are then perfectly believable in terms of preserving the mise-en-scène of a real podcast. Joanna’s Kitchen was produced on a very low budget by Cosmina Sandor, but the idea was so strong and well-directed that you could not place any limitations on it. The first idea for this short film came about during lockdown, and production decided to postpone the set. You can see in the short movie that it is both contemporary and urgent at the same time. In a note from the director, she writes: “There’s a saying that says life is more surprising than movies; based on what transpired on February 24th, it appears movies are more surprising than life.” Do not miss the chance to see this short film if you can. Theo Herghelegiu is the talented director of this short film. She is a theatre director, playwright, scriptwriter, drama tutor, and translator in Europe, living in Bucharest, Romania. In 1992, she earned a degree in Philology from the University of Bucharest. In 1998, she earned a degree in Theatre Directing from the National University of Theatre and Film. In 2013, she also received a Master’s degree in Film Aesthetics. She has directed over 50 theatre shows and written many plays, some of which were staged by her or by other Romanian and foreign directors. Additionally, she has performed on stage and in films, winning Best Feminine Role in 1998. After writing scripts for several features, she made her directorial debut with the short film 10, Autumn Street. Her experience also includes journalism, acting coaching, and literary translations. In 1998, she founded TEATRUL INEXISTENT, the first and most active independent theatre company in Romania at the time. Its performances were an avant-garde artistic statement of the decade. As well as plays by important contemporary authors such as Sibylle Berg, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Lukas Bärfuss, Thomas Bernhard, and Claudine Galea, she also directed plays by Shakespeare and other classics. She believes that performing arts are about sharing joy, about sharing togetherness, and about discovering a truth that lasts for a maximum of two seconds. Because of all these reasons, Joanna’s Kitchen won Best Experimental Short Film at the April 2022 Berlin Indie Film Festival Monthly Competition. Congratulations to all the cast and crew!