There are few films made in Cluj, and I know from personal experience the difficulties one has to go through when embarking on an independent feature film, guerrilla-style. There's no guarantee that you'll finish it, and you have to rely on the goodwill of many – bit by bit, you leave behind a large piece of your soul. Then, if you manage to complete it, the hurdle of acceptance at festivals remains. Almost entirely produced locally, "Blue Planet" tells the story of five old friends who try to reunite their youth band and shoot their first music video.
Lack of money, free time, fatigue, and failures are ever-present, but nothing deters them because they feel that if they give up, they will lose the battle with their own existence. Their passion keeps them energized, disconnecting them, in drops, from their hard work: a taxi driver, a painter, a baker, a nurse assistant.
The documentary, directed by Dani Sărăcuț and produced by Eugen Kelemen, follows them at home, at work, and in the improvised studio where they escape from all their problems and become different people. What stands out is the style of British social realism, characterized by a natural closeness to the subject and a raw, unembellished presentation of the situation. It is a style representative of disadvantaged areas of communities, where people live difficult lives and have no certainty about tomorrow.
It's a world that is rarely authentically represented, a world that many filmmakers exploit without genuine affection. This endeavor is even more commendable as it invites us, in a balanced and empathetic manner, to see the five friends as they are, removing the aesthetically veiled curtain of any form of idealization of the truth.