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NEWS OF THE DAY

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Romania wins to Island 3-0, in men's volleyball European U-19 Championships'

preliminaries
Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - Romania won to Island 3-0 (25-14 25-6 25-10), on Saturday
night in the Olimpia Sports Hall of P loiesti (rd 60 km north of Bucharest) in a Group E match of the
second round of the men's volleyball European Under 19 Championships 2017.
The Romanian tricolours have eased into the victory after only 57 minutes.
Radu Pop (11 points), Vlad Cristian Curuia-Pop (10 points) and Bela Florian Bartha (9
points) were the best players of our team.
The last match is due Sunday, when Romania will meet Portugal (20:00 hrs Bucharest
Time).AGERPRES
ID: 4790086; Data: 2017-01-15 12:06:58; Redactori: mav/mav

INTERVIEW/BVB's Sobole wski:Infrastructure is for investors wanting calm sleep,

that's why they like Bucharest Airport
Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - The Bucharest Airports National Company (CNAB) should be
listed on the stock market because air traffic will increase and the current capacity is insufficient,
international investors already manifesting their interest to buy shares of this company, the director of
the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), Ludwik Sobolewski, says in an interview for AGERPRES.
He also claims that the listing of Hidroelectrica would transform the Romanian capital market
in an emerging market, and the Government that will do so "will have a historic merit"
Sobolewski also speaks in the interview about the development of the capital market in 2016,
the launch of an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the stock market in the coming weeks, the possible
listing of the Port of Constanta, a company that "fits on the capital market", as well as about the
merger between BVB and Sibex.
AGERPRES: How was 2016 on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB)?
Ludwik Sobolewski: A lot of good things happened, one of the best was that the stock
exchange, but not only the stock exchange, I would say the whole Romanian economy and Romania
was put on the so-called 'watchlist' by one of the global agencies that look at country and markets, and
they are responsible for classifying them and our goal is to become a so-called emerging market,
which is very, very close to the aristocracy among these global markets which are developed markets.

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Now, Romania is merely a frontier market, so it's not a very prestigious brand. And we are striving to
be upgraded.
One of these agencies decided to put Romania and the capital market of Romania on this
monitoring list - emerging market monitoring list - so we are not yet within this category of emerging
markets but for the first time since, I would say, always, someone noticed the modernization of the
Romanian capital market and they decided to make this step. So we expect that this would be
followed by other steps because it depends on whether we will successfully continue our internal
work in Romania, and it depends on whether the Romanian Government finally decides to send one of
the largest or the largest Romanian company - Hidroelectrica - to the market. If it happens, then we
can reasonably count on Romania being, at last, an emerging market, a new one, even this year, in the
second half of this year. So, moving Romania from this "black hole" of frontier markets in September
last year and putting it on this review list by the FTSE, this is the agency I was speaking about, a
company of the London Stock Exchange was one of the more significant events as regards last year.
So the stock exchange, as I said, on the one hand, is a quite sophisticated organization, based
on technology and regulation but, on the other hand, we can only exist, successfully, if we have this
sort of engagement in the affairs of people and entrepreneurs. So our efforts are focused on this and,
in that regard, 2016 was quite good because we were continuing our campaign for better financial
literacy and better financial education in Romania. 2016 is when we significantly increased the
visibility of the market for financial instruments, and the presence of this market in the minds of
people and business in Romania is much greater than, say, 3 years ago.
AGERPRES: Do you think we will see other IPOs of state-owned enterprises this year?
Because on the Social Democrat Party's (PSD) programme there was nothing about that.
Ludwik Sobolewski: I think this is more than reasonable for any government, and I have very
clear hopes with respect to the new Government to make state-owned companies public entities, so to
make them listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, at least for two main reasons.
I'll start with something which is not that much a financial objective. It is of great importance,
and I think everybody is aware of that, to improve the quality of the management of state-owned
enterprises. It is very important to make state-owned companies more efficient, in the economic sense,
and more productive. Romania still ranks very, very low when it comes to productivity of business in
general, not only in Europe, but in our region of Central Eastern Europe, so this is very important. The
stock exchange, any stock exchange, maybe I should say any well-organized stock exchange and
stock market, which is based on rules, on the rules of corporate governance which all listed companies
must obey, serves this purpose because it puts a company under the oversight of the public market.
And this public market is not an abstract concept. It is composed of institutions and real people which
vote by using their money and by stepping in and stepping out, so it is a good deal, it's something that
has a very strong rationale for the public authority to send a company to the public market.
The government does not have to lose control over this company in order to have these
benefits and these advantages. It is sort of like a free upgrade of my assets. I don't need to hire
consultants, I don't need to spend money on anything. I only need to put this company on the public
market and the market will generate these positive changes for my assets.
And the second is something which can be an objective of the state, who is the shareholder,
but is the objective of any shareholder, that a company can have access to financing, the company can
simply develop using different sources of financing. It doesn't really matter that much that some
companies are explicitly mentioned in any governmental papers, even though I was always
advocating a need to have a sort of developed privatization programme, but in essence it doesn't
matter that much, because I think one of the elements of this progress that we are witnessing, and to
which we are contributing, is that there is a general view of the political class that the Bucharest Stock
Exchange does exist and there is a set of benefits and advantages that can be obtained if state
companies have something notably to do with the stock market in Romania.

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I would say, of course, there are very solid grounds and reasons for Hidroelectrica to be listed.
And once again, if Hidroelectrica is listed, the Government which will do that will have a historical
merit, really. And this may be done once in a lifetime so this upgrade of Romania to a totally different
family of markets which will generate a lot of benefits, not only strictly speaking in the field of the
capital market.
AGERPRES: What do you believe of the listing of Henri Coanda Bucharest Airport?
Ludwik Sobolewski: Every time I'm checking in at Henri Coanda Airport I'm wondering why
this company, I mean the operator of the airport, is not yet listed. I mean, we don't have to be experts
when it comes to aviation traffic to be fully convinced that the traffic is indeed growing and the
capacity of this airport is not meeting this not only future flow of people, but even currently the
capacity is too reduced. And we know that international investors already expressed their interest in
buying the shares of the airport in Bucharest. So this is another example of a potential great deal for
the Romanian Government to make the IPO of this company, to improve the branding and the
visibility and the recognition of Romania in the eyes of international investors, so people who have
money, and maybe we will need these people and their money for other things in the future. So it does
make sense to keep an ongoing contact with them and to simply raise funds in order to improve the
state of this infrastructure because a lot of people are flying to Bucharest and a lot of people who are
also important for Romanian economy.
And I'm not only speaking of VIPs in finance and economy, but also tourism. Tourism is one
of the chances of Romania, but tourism is hard to be developed if the main airport in the country is
that underdeveloped. I'm trying to show that the capital market is not an abstract thing in the Universe,
but if you have an efficient capital market, it can trigger very positive effects for the economy at large.
Maybe the owners of hotels on the Black Sea coast will not be aware that they can have 2, 3,
5 percent increases of people sleeping in this hotels year-on-year but it's an indirect effect of the fact
that the airport of Bucharest is listed. It's a good company, it's a company which has the capability to
develop, it's a company that has the money in order to ensure its development. That's why capital
market generally is something that is important for the development of the whole economy.
AGERPRES: Is a listing of the Port of Constanta on the Bucharest Stock Exchange feasible?
Ludwik Sobolewski: Another gateway of Romania, the importance of which will grow, is the
Port of Constanta. This is also a company that, I would say, fits very naturally the stock exchange and
the stock market in Romania. We also think that it is a very good time for private entrepreneurs to
come to the stock exchange. Those private entrepreneurs could benefit from the rapid growth of this
economy, from the fact that people have a better purchasing power. Of course, still, there is a lot of
people with no money, relatively poor or just poor, but generally the income per capita and all these
indicators show us that this country becomes wealthier. It is a good opportunity for private businesses
established during this transformation in Romania, which started around 25 years ago. These
businesses especially offer goods and services to the population.
Infrastructure is for investors that have the appetite to sleep calmly, that's why they like the
Airport of Bucharest, because for them it's one of the guaranteed success stories. But we can very
easily have investors with a taste for more commercial products or assets, or as we call it consumer
stocks. Anything related to consumption can be very popular among investors. This is my message for
the entrepreneurial world. I hope that they will also be inspired by the example of MedLife. I hope
that for 2017 that we will see a wave of this inspiration from the private entrepreneurial world which
will to a greater extent understand they can also make history for themselves by entering the market
and following this example of MedLife. 2017 definitely is the year when the Romanian Government
will be really engaged in the historic mission to ensure a better future for Romania and to improve the
position of Romania among the most developed nations in Europe, when it comes to the quality of the
financial infrastructure.
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AGERPRES: Do you think we will see this year private IPOs on the stock market?
Ludwik Sobolewski: I think so. We can expect one in this quarter, even in the upcoming
weeks. We mentioned about talking with business people, but this does not rely only on talking to
them, even if the stock exchange is people's business and it is indispensable to be in real contact with
real people, but you also create instruments that really offer new conditions for a company that
decides to go public. For instance, we have a growing number of market makers. In modern stock
markets a lot of the trading comes not from these independent decisions of people and financial
institutions that decide to invest, but a lot of the trading comes from professionalized, specialized
institutions that do trading from the trading itself and gaining some benefits from the market operator
for that. So, building the network of these market makers gives to these new entrants, to these new
companies to have the turnover, to have the trading in their shares.
At the beginning of our work, there was a quite frequent situation: we already had these
companies more or less contemplating to be listed, but there was a lack of investors and, whether we
want it or don't these two elements must go together. Now I think the situation is much better. We
have a greater interest from investors, we are even sometimes confronted with the eagerness to know
from us what could be rising in the market, because they want to put up some money into companies
that would be arriving to the market. Now the situation is much, much better than it was and I think it
will only improve.
AGERPRES: When will the merger between BVB and Sibex happen?
Ludwik Sobolewski: This is a transaction which should be described as a merger by
absorption, so, in other words, we are taking over this company. It's not a company which presents a
big value for investors and entrepreneurs in Romania but we are quite determined to complete this
transaction because we think this is like bringing things to normality. Romania certainly does not have
enough place for two stock exchanges. Even markets much larger than Romania do not afford
themselves to have more than one stock exchange, because the most important thing in our business is
the liquidity and the concentration of this liquidity and, quite frankly, it doesn't make sense for
anybody to have one stock exchange and something else which claims also to be a stock exchange. I
think that this will lead to a further improvement of the general market architecture in Romania and
certainly will also enhance the perception of Romania outside because what we have now is a little bit
of a bizarre situation. And international investors normally do not like bizarre situations. They may
like exciting stories and a lot of risks, and adventure when it comes to what they could invest in but
when it comes to infrastructure, it should come impeccably and without any anomalies. So my
perception of this process which we are conducting with our colleagues from Sibex is in those terms
and I hope that this will be successfully completed this year which would be a significant change, in
this context, for the capital market of Romania.
AGERPRES: Do you need to speak with the Competition Council about it?
Ludwik Sobolewski: Yes, but I don't expect we will face any obstacles because the market
share of Sibex is that small that it should not trigger any concerns with the Competition authority from
the point of view of the concentration of the market.
AGERPRES: Will we have this year new products from the BVB?
Ludwik Sobolewski: We are seeing a greater interest in bonds. Also because sometimes
people - the owners of the business, the founders of the business think in this way: "I'm not that much
prepared to share my business with new shareholders, but I have trust and my calculations prove that
it is beneficial for me to finance myself through the market, but via bonds, because bonds do not give
access to my corporation for the bond-holders but they give me money." I think that we will see the
interest maintaining from companies to issue bonds. However, I would like also, still in the context of
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the shares, to draw the attention of entrepreneurs to the following fact: Taking money from the banks
is, we could at say at first sight, very, very easy, because banks have a lot of money and they have
something which is called over-liquidity in the sector so they theoretically have now important
capability to give loans to entrepreneurs, and moreover the cost of money is very low. However, the
bankers themselves, of course they are professional people so they cannot give money that do not
enough of the equity capital, that do not have their own capital. So companies should be aware of the
fact that they may have problems in getting a loan because they are, as we say, undercapitalized.
Sometimes, still they are not aware that in order to solve this problem, they could go to the stock
exchange and to improve the balance sheet and to improve their own capital and then they can turn up
at the doors of a bank and take the loan, probably even cheaper than ever. So I hope that also this
awareness will grow in the future.
Other instruments... we offer structured products, this is something which is already an
established instrument on the market, but we introduced something which is called "warrants", very
interesting instruments. It was one of our accomplishments, last year, that we convinced one of the
Austrian Banks to be the issuer of these instruments and this instrument is now based on the shares of
international and Romanian companies. It is traded on the stock exchange. A good instrument also for
individual traders, individual investors. I think we will have even more of these warrants, meaning
warrants that will be based on new shares.
I have the honor to say that the Romanian regulator demonstrated that the regulator is
intelligent and the regulations which we have in Romania are very good ones. The short sale is
available, but, still theoretically, because it is not very much offered by the brokers to their clients, it
is available since August last year. And I think, speaking of 2017, and I hope, that this year will be the
year when we see these type of transactions appearing in the market. It will be of great importance to
enhance the attractiveness of the market because the stock exchange loves two categories of clients:
those who think of "we are investors, we are medium-term, we are long-term investors, we look at the
fundamentals, we look at the company, we try to understand what the company does, we try to
understand the economic context, we try to link the political context with what will happen to prices
in the market, so yes, investors. But the stock exchange also love people who enter the market not that
much paying attention to what is behind the shares, but paying attention to the evolution of the prices,
to how the prices evolve over ten seconds, or one minute, so the category of traders that we call
speculators. Maybe this name is not very aristocratic, but they are very needed for every capital
market, they are very useful in making any capital market an important source of financ ing for the
companies. So this short-selling is exactly for these type of people.
AGERPRES: How do you see the blockchain technology in the future?
Ludwik Sobolewski: The point is that in order to have a more developed market, we need to
have more companies, we need to have more investors, among those new companies, once again, for
the third or for the fourth time, I will mention Hidroelectrica for this strategic paramount importance
for the future, but it is hinged on the existence of concrete instruments that the market can offer to
these investors, such as short-sale, market makers, transparency driven by corporate governance,
financial literacy, projects and a lot of things, and of course, I mentioned at the very beginning that we
are a super technological company so a constant development in the technology field is crucial. I think
that 2017 will also be the year when these topics will become even more important because many of
us are aware that we live not only in the era of smartphones, but also we are starting to live in the era
of blockchain technology, and this is something which is very disruptive and this can change, will
likely change the way we function in business and everyday life. And something like blockchain
which originally was the support for the bitcoins, something like blockchains is becoming extremely
important for those pieces of infrastructures as the stock exchanges of international markets. 2017 and
the next years will be extremely interesting because we will have to participate in this technological

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revolution, which is not about new gadgets, but this revolution is something very profound. I think
that we have no way but to accept what the Chinese say: "We live in interesting times".AGERPRES
ID: 4790090; Data: 2017-01-15 12:12:01; Redactori: pra/mav

Slovak barge crew receives food by helicopter on Danube

Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - A helicopter with the Aviation General Inspectorate of the
Internal Affairs Ministry (MAI) transported basic food stuff to a Slovak-flagged barge's crew which
was stuck in the ice on the Danube's Bala Arm.
According to a release by the MAI sent on Saturday night to AGERPRES, the crew of a barge
under Slovak flag, due to unfavourable meteorological phenomena was withheld for several days,
hence its water, food supplies ran out.
Following the sailors' emergency appeal, the MAI helicopter took off from Bucharest to
southeastern Calarasi where it loaded the supplies that had been transported on the city's main stadium
to be uploaded in the helicopter.
After identifying the barge on the Bala Arm, the MI8 helicopter's crew backed by firefighters
with the Calarasi Emergency Situations Inspectorate (ISU) made it to download all of the cargo onto
the barge in a specific action, adds the source.AGERPRES
ID: 4790113; Data: 2017-01-15 12:31:01; Redactori: mav/mav

PM Grindeanu: National Culture Day reconnects us to our cultural identity roots

Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - The National Culture Day that is 'happily overlapping the
name of Mihai Eminescu' is meant to reconnect us from the very first days of the New Year to our
cultural identity roots, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu says in a message on Sunday.
"I've joyfully learned that the first important secular holiday of the year is this very day, the
National Culture Day, something that is happily overlapping the name of Mihai Eminescu. As the
month of January of the religious calendar starts with the Epiphany, the same is today meant to
reconnect us from the very first days of the New Year to our cultura l identity roots," reads the
Premier's message on the National Culture Day.
Sorin Grindeanu says that this day reminded him of the times the grandparents were teaching
their grandchildren Eminescu's lyrics and at the same time he stresses that in the hardest days of the
Romanian people, culture has always brought joy and freedom.
"Culture is alive and it is Life. Culture has always stayed at the gates of the Spirit and brought
us Joy and Freedom, even in this people's hardest times. Which is why we should n't let pass one
single day without allowing the Beauty to please us, be it through books, theatre, music, film,
painting, sculpture or any other artistic form of expression created in this cultural space! Let's
celebrate and love our people of culture, for the way they have chosen to fulfill their mission on
earth!" stresses the Premier in his message.AGERPRES
ID: 4790135; Data: 2017-01-15 12:55:13; Redactori: mav/mav

President Iohannis: Respect for our country is mostly built on its culture, artist's
international appreciation
Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - Respect for Romania is worldwide built on the international
appreciation of the Romanian culture and artists, on Sunday said President Klaus Iohannis on behalf
of the National Culture Day.
"Every time I had the opportunity to bestow on the Romanians' behalf the highest titles to
those who have dedicated their entire lives to the cultural creation, I felt honoured. Their masterpieces
have brought joy to our hearts and made us spiritually richer. Under the sun, the respect for our
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country is built to a great extent on the international appreciation of its culture and artists. Our cultural
heritage continues to be the most silver-tongued and ambassador of the Romanian nation," president
Iohannis wrote on his Facebook page.AGERPRES
ID: 4790144; Data: 2017-01-15 13:11:23; Redactori: mav/mav

INTERVIEW/Nae Caranfil:When started to write '6.9 on the Richte r Scale' script I was
interested in Apocalypse hysteria
Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - Filmmaker Nae Caranfil says in an interview with
AGERPRES that the moment he has started to put down in black and white the script for his latest
feature, '6.9 on the Richter Scale' he was interested in the "End of the World's hysteria and flirting
with the idea' that should he carried out 'a quite apocalyptic comedy', the latter would have seen its
first night the date the End of the World was forecast, namely on 21 December 2012.
"I was rather interested in the hysteria of the End of the World, foretold for 2012, for 21
December 2012. And I was thinking that if I did a pretty apocalyptic comedy, it would have been
screened for the first time on that very fatidic day," said the director.
The movie produced by Mobra Films features Laurentiu Banescu, Maria Obretin, Teodor
Corban and Simona Arsu.
The main character, interpreted by Laurentiu Banescu is a young theatre actor who strives to
navigate among a complicated musical part, a jealous-to-depressive wife (Maria Obretin) and the
obsession of the devastating huge earthquake foretold as imminent by all the so-called prophets. To
him, a true earthquake proves to be the unexpected coming of his own father (Teodor Corban), after
decades of absence. Manipulative, immoral, his father settles in his son's universe overwhelmingly
confiscating him and shaking his existence.
AGERPRES: You say that '6.9 on the Richter Scale' is no musical. Why do you say that?
Nae Caranfil: It is not because except for a final number, it doesn't meet the genre criteria. It's
a realistic comedy where everything that happens, from the musical point of view included, is
validated by the situation and the story. I mean, the characters do not start to sing without a reason, as
things go in a musical and how we should see in a proper musical. In my story, a musical's show is
repeating, which doesn't transfer the musical status to the movie.
AGERPRES: The reference you make to the art world, to the inside, to the very specifics of
the art world has reminded me of the 'The rest is silence'. Is it a way of revisiting this feature?
Nae Caranfil: No. I wouldn't tell. 'The rest is silence' is a movie I've written very many years
ago, '6.9 on the Richter Scale' is way recent. I used to have other preoccupations in 2010, when I've
started to write the script of '6.9'. I was rather interested in the hysteria of the End of the World as it
was foretold for 2012, for 21 December 2012. And I was thinking that if I did a pretty apoc alyptic
comedy it could have its first night that very fatidic day.
AGERPRES: Several times you said that you are afraid of the earthquakes.
Nae Caranfil: And who isn't? Perhaps only those who live on continents or in countries that
never experience such things...
AGERPRES: Or in cities that are not Bucharest...
Nae Caranfil: Earthquakes do reach cities that are not Bucharest, too. For example, Paris is
not afraid of earthquakes because it hasn't any.
AGERPRES: Since you have dealt with earthquakes' matter in this movie, was it a kind of
exorcising your fear?
Nae Caranfil: I've been asked about that. Not necessarily. Maybe this, too, although I didn't
want to exorcise anything and yet I found it spectacular to play with this element, in particular
because the translation between the obsession of the huge earthquake that is threatening us all and the
idea to cause an earthquake in a character's personal life, a private earthquake seemed to me plausible
and interesting to father this parallel.
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AGERPRES: The approach you have towards the artistic life in this movie also reminds me
of 'All That Jazz'...
Nae Caranfil: But of course I had in mind 'All That Jazz' when I thought the feature's 'grand
finale' part because I'm a great admirer of Bob Fosse...or a tiny admirer of Bob Fosse, he is the great
one... And in this case I felt I could allow myself and try to bring a tribute to his style.
AGERPRES: How did you work this movie? The pieces of rehearsals, the pieces of musical,
the pieces of life, the character's true life. Have you written them separately, have you filmed them in
detached periods?
Nae Caranfil: I have written the script following the story, the way it happened in my
imagination. The shooting...A filmmaker very rarely could allow himself to shoot the sequences
chronologically or as the story flows. No way. The film is shot by variables depending also by the
production, by the day/night, outside/inside shooting, things that keep with the movie's kitchen. That
is why it's complicated to shoot, because when doing it one must have in their head that what they do
will be a part of a bigger mechanism and that its place must perfectly match the big picture.
AGERPRES: If you were to get into the movie's main character's skin, which was the
shooting moment you were much afraid of?
Nae Caranfil: I believe that I was mostly afraid of the earthquakes, because nobody has ever
did that. I had no idea. We could repeat a sequence on solid soil. But we couldn't know what would
have happened when we started to shake the scenery, since we couldn't repeat it for ever because we
have had to put it back together, a lot of furniture and stuff that would have revolved. Therefore we
were rehearsing on solid soil and said "Motor! Action!" trying to make as fewer shots as possible.
Because in-between the shots, the time to put the scenery back and repair the damage was quite long.
AGERPRES: You have implicated in the musical part yourself...
Nae Caranfil: No, I didn't, I wrote all of the musical part and the lyrics. And I had help
afterwards at the orchestration from two colleagues and good friends - Bogdan Dumitriu and Liviu
Manescu.
AGERPRES: How hard was it, how different from filmmaking?
Nae Caranfil: I've composed the music long before starting to make the movie. It should be
ready when the film was to be shot and in a first stage right before the preparation period, I have
recorded with the actors the musical pieces that had to be at the foundation of all rehearsals and things
that were to happen, including the choreography rehearsals.
AGERPRES: You were saying that Laurentiu Banescu was even tested for his voice.
Nae Caranfil: Not tested for his voice, but when I flirted with the idea to have him the main
part I asked him if he sings, if he's got a voice ...because that was about, firstly I brought him to the
studio where yes we may say he gave a small test. I mean I had him sing one of the pieces, I had him
recorded and then we realised that his voice was plausible, feasible to work with.
AGERPRES: At the dance moments I saw professional dancers on the film credits. How did
you shape this second crew?
Nae Caranfil: Once picked the choreographer and brought him from Belgrade, I've organised
a casting session for him and I believe he picked 20 out of 50 dancers. He tested them, he had them
create a show - if I recall well it was about "Bye Bye Blackbird", he taught them the show, he
developed it with all of the 50 dancers and then he focused on certain dance figures and dancers he
had chosen.
AGERPRES: Since the music is so spectacular, I have to ask you when an album strictly with
the music is to be issued.
Nae Caranfil: We think to make an album strictly with the movie's music. We haven't done it
yet because time has pressured us, if you ask about the film's first night. Hopefully in a not that far
future we could launch a CD with the film's music.

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AGERPRES: I thought that '6.9 on the Richter Scale' is somehow a return of your's as a
filmmaker in Bucharest in the indoor shooting. And I had the impression it reminds of 'Filantropica',
too.
Nae Caranfil: It's possible. I'd love it to be so, because it is indeed a Bucharest film. Many of
my movies are Bucharest films. Even the vintage films are also Bucharest films. I wouldn't know
what really links me to this city except that I was born here, but, yes, absolutely. The story is
imposing its exactingness even upon the author. This is it, this is all about, this is the hero, these are
the streets I could stroll him on.
AGERPRES: You talk about earthquakes. What would be the major earthquakes in the life of
a filmmaker?
Nae Caranfil: They could be dressed variously. It could be the one when a project they start
must be abandoned due to some financial catastrophes, as it was the case of Terry Gilliam and his
movie on Don Quixote. There is an earthquake. There could be many more. It could be a resounding
failure of a costly movie for a producer and as of that moment, you, as a filmmaker, are starting to
enter the 'persona non grata' space. There are various kinds of earthquakes.
AGERPRES: You used to have great projects you have waited to happen, because you wait
for the financing. What kept you... in the battle?
Nae Caranfil: Life is always strange. It is complex, with many aspects, so to quote myself. It
happened many times that while waiting for a movie another one to appear. Waiting for 'The rest is
silence' the other film, 'Asphalt Tango' appeared. Waiting for 'Closer to the Moon', 'The rest is silence'
appeared. And so on.
AGERPRES: The father of the main character of '6.9 on the Richter Scale' breaks into the
movie as a stranger who comes to see the artists, and everybody is stunned by him. You have also had
the experience of working with foreign producers. How did this experience last in your memory?
Nae Caranfil: In many, many ways. I mean, I have worked with many foreign producers and I
have a different story with each of them, but with each one good things happened that have made me
richer, made me think a bit different, put me in their shoes, made me see the movie through their eyes.
But, mark my words, a producer is a producer, no matter their nationality. Of course there is a big
difference between the American and non-American producers. It is a difference of vision and of
economic context. And then obviously that they place themselves differently in relation to the film.
AGERPRES: Is it hard for a director to obey the producer's vision? Not to obey necessarily,
but to accept it...
Nae Caranfil: Yes. In general, I cannot submit to a producer's vision. I can at most 'buy'
certain suggestions he makes. But, all the movies I made are author movies and even when put in the
situation - it happened once - to be pressured upon more than 'legally foreseen', I have found solutions
to fall to my feet and bring my movie to the harbour I wanted to.
AGERPRES: If we were to shape an imaginary Richter Scale of your movies, which was the
hardest to be financed, which the easiest one?
Nae Caranfil: It's hard for me to say. Yes, 'Closer to the Moon' was hard to finance. We have
hoped and hoped to get some money from various sources and we didn't make it. And the fact that it
was done, eventually, it was because the American producer really wanted to do this film and finally
found money sources. But it took him years of admirable ambitious' struggle, if you ask me, for this
film to be made.
AGERPRES: And what about the easiest to finance?
Nae Caranfil: I guess that 'Asphalt Tango' was the easiest to finance. Yes, almost certainly. In
a few months, after finishing the writing of the first version of the script, four or five months
afterwards we were entering production with all the money in the piggy-bank.
***

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The feature '6.9 on Richter scale', screened last year at the Transilvania International Film
Festival (TIFF), set a new record in the event's opening: over 3,000 spectators in the Unirii Square of
Cluj-Napoca.
The movie had a Bucharest preview within the 'Les Films de Cannes a Bucarest', last fall, its
screening being sold-out yet before the festival's kick off.
Nae Caranfil has written and directed six features: 'Closer to the Moon' (his first movie in
English, starring Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong); 'Restul e tacere' / 'The rest is silence' (2007), in
competition at Locarno Film Festival; 'Filantropica' (2002), counting for over 100k moviegoers in
Romania; 'Asfalt Tango' / 'Asphalt Tango' (1996), with Charlotte Rampling; 'Dolce far niente' (1998) in competition at Karlovy Vary Film Festival; 'E pericoloso sporgersi', with first run at Directors'
Fortnight in Cannes, 1993.AGERPRES
ID: 4790242; Data: 2017-01-15 16:23:28; Redactori: mav/mav

Romanian Academy holds solemn session on National Culture Day, Mihai Eminescu's
Day
Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - The Romanian Academy has ceaselessly promoted the
national culture in its broadest sense, and its role is to protect our national identity, on Sunday said the
President of the Romanian Academy, Ionel-Valentin Vlad.
"Having been established to cultivate the Romanian language, to study the national history,
sciences and arts, the Romanian Academy has ceaselessly promoted our national culture in its
broadest sense," said Ionel-Valentin Vlad at the solemn session "Around the Romanian identity"
organised by the Romanian Academy and the National Foundation for Science and Art on the Day of
the National Culture and the Day of poet Mihai Eminescu.
He said that the role of the Romanian Academy is to properly mediate between the integration
tendency and the national identity.
"The role of the Academy is to defend the national identity, to bring its deep, priceless values
considering the current tendencies of the humankind development," added he.
Ionel-Valentin Vlad triggereda signal on the school handbooks, mentioning bids that are
favourable to certain publishing houses and interests, and also on the fact that the high school books
from the scientific point of view contain less data as regards some discoveries made by Romanian
scholars, such as Carol Davila, Victor Babes, Ioan Cantacuzino, Gheorghe Marinescu, Nicolae
Paulescu, Grigore Antipa, Emil Racovita, Anghel Saligni, Aurel Vlaicu, Traian Vuia, Henri Coanda
and many others, and have instead 'ephemeral names of some TV moderators.'
Ionel-Valentin Vlad also said that according to a top of the most spoken languages
worldwide, Romanian ranks 40 with rd 23.4 millions of speakers.
"Importantly is that Romanian is spoken in all of its dialects in 20 countries. This is our
language, it is not minor, it stretches wide," added the academic.
Another reputed academic, Eugen Simion, president of the Philology and Literature Section
with the Romanian Academy, reminded that the National Culture Day is celebrated on the very
birthday of Mihai Eminescu, which is 'a symbolic alliance' and 'a fruitful reunion.'
"We celebrate today Eminescu's birthday. For some years now, at the Academy's proposal,
the Parliament has voted that this day should be the National Culture Day. A proper, fruitful reunion,
a symbolic alliance to us, the Romanians, and to all of those who deem that among the world's values,
culture is and stays paramount. It is paramount because it expresses the values of the national spirit
and our way of being, a people among peoples around the globe, of receiving and expressing the
relationships with the others, namely our identity," said academic Eugen Simion.AGERPRES
ID: 4790274; Data: 2017-01-15 17:40:25; Redactori: mav/mav

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Tel +4 021 207 61 10
www.agerpres.ro

Registrations of luxury vehicles up by 23pct in 2016

Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - The most traded luxury vehicles in Romania have recorded in
2016 an increase by 22.7pct of the registrations of the new and used cars reaching 5,368 units, with
Volvo topping the rankings, say the data released by the Directorate for Driving and Vehicle
Registration /DRPCIV/, read by AGERPRES.
In January - December 2016, among the most expensive vehicles newly registered were:
Volvo (2,306 units, of which 380 new), Alfa Romeo (959 units, of which 20 new), Porsche (731 units,
of which 228 new), Jeep (524 units, of which 369 new) and Jaguar (354 units, 169 new).
To the above-mentioned adds the Chrysler model (82 units), Maserati (41 units), Bentley (35
units), Cadillac (26 units), Ferrari (16 units), Lamborghini (7 units) and Pontiac (3 units).
According to the DRPCIV, generally speaking the new vehicles' registrations on 2016 grew
by 16.95 units to 94,919 units, from 81,162 units in 2015.AGERPRES
ID: 4790284; Data: 2017-01-15 18:05:38; Redactori: mav/mav

ForMin Melescanu to participate in Foreign Affairs Council's reunion in Brussels

Bucharest, Jan 15 /Agerpres/ - The Foreign Affairs Minister, Teodor Melescanu will attend
on Monday in Brussels the monthly reunion of the Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) alongside his
counterparts of the Member States of the European Union, a press release by the relevant ministry
says.
The reunion will open by reviewing the main topics on the European agenda in the first half
of 2017, in the context of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU, included, upon which the
ministers will swap opinions. The recent developments in Syria and the ways through which the EU
could contribute to the international community's efforts to solve the crisis, will also be analysed.
Information regarding the EU - Morocco relationship and the peace process negotiations in
Cyprus will also be included in the talks' agenda.
During a working lunch, the European foreign ministers will address the stage of negotiations
of the Peace Process in the Middle East, following the Paris Conference.AGERPRES
ID: 4790298; Data: 2017-01-15 18:56:19; Redactori: mav/mav

Englis h Service Team, January 15, 2017

English Service Team, January 15, 2017
Editor
Maria Voican (mav)
AGERPRES
ID: 4790301; Data: 2017-01-15 19:01:25; Redactori: mav/mav

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