The Source

He left Romania in 1980 during the dictatorship of Ceausescu, to flee to France via Israel. In Paris he studied film and worked as assistant director to Marco Ferreri (among others), with whom he then worked on the adaptation of Plato’s dialogue for the TV movie The Banquet in 1989.

In 1993, Radu Mihăileanu directed Trahir, his first feature film, of which he co-wrote the screenplay. The film won several awards at festivals (Montreal, Istanbul…). His second feature film, Le Train de la vie, gained international success, in particular by winning two prizes at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and the Sundance Festival.
After meeting with Ethiopian immigrants in Israel, he began a vast undertaking that would culminate in 2005 with Va, Vis et Deviens, which was nominated for a César for best original screenplay the following year, after having won several awards at the Berlinale in 2005.

In 2009, Le Concert would attract nearly 1.9 million viewers in France and would be a global success, culminating in a Golden Globe nomination. In 2011, he directed La Source, Radu Mihăileanu’s tale of women from a village in North Africa seeking equality with their husbands by carrying out a sex strike. The film was part of the official selection at Cannes in 2011. He was knighted in the Order of Arts and Letters in 2007 and made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour on July 14, 2011. —moreeurope.org