Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

The Chosen One, directed by Cristian Comeaga and starring Bogdan Stanoevici, Laura Cosoi, Nicodim Ungureanu and Olimpia Melinte, tells the story of Mr. X, a man who lived in the mid-80s and fled the country aided by those who had the mission to keep him here at any cost. A few years later, they call in the favor: he must kill someone. At first he opposes the idea, then he accepts it, but his hesitation comes with a high price.

The Chosen One is a political thriller somehow told in a lighthearted way, set during Romania’s bleakest days under the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, before and after the 1989 Romanian anti-communist uprising.

In the production notes, Romanian director, writer and producer Cristian Comeaga describes his film as a “testified history, a subjective speech. Nothing of what happens in the film, no place thereof and no character says anything about me, yet taken together they tell my entire story.”

The lead actor, Bogdan Stanoevici, a well-known actor in both his native Romania and his adopted motherland, France, was made Deputy Minister of Culture for Romania just after this film was completed. His costar, Laura Cosoi is one of the country’s leading actresses.

The film was shot in 37 days, in 56 locations across Romania, France and Belgium. Due to financial difficulties, shooting took more than a year (May 2012 to June 2013), while visual effects and post-production added another year and a half schedule.

Mario Amaya