- [on his biography] In 1981 my father visited a congress as a dentist in West-Germany and decided to stay; my mother and I followed him in 1983. I probably never really got used to it [living in Germany] and always asked myself if it wouldn't be better to return to Romania. After I graduated [in Stuttgart] I went to Bucharest to study, in spite of my parents wishes, that I should rather study in Berlin or Munich or even in America, in Los Angeles or New York. But I didn't want to live in another country one more time. It already had been a traumatic experience for me as a child to come from Romania to Germany. (...) I grew up in Cluj, the Transylvanian city of Klausenburg, which is in the north of the country [Romania]. The cultural influence of Germany and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire is still strongly visible there, far more than in Bucharest, which is in the south of Romania. In Germany I was seen as a Romanian immigrant and when I returned [to Romania] I was seen there as a German. Since I didn't return to my homeland [Transylvania], but went instead to the main capital [Bucharest], it took me a few years anyway to feel comfortable and to call it my home.
- [on the Romanian New Wave] It's a competition between us, and we inspire one another, for sure. Cristian Mungiu's first film, Occident (2002), was treated in a very classical way, and it was like cinema of the '60s. And his second film, which won the Palme d'Or, was like a minimalistic film of the New Wave. And he got inspired, of course, by Cristi Puiu, who did The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005). So did Radu Muntean and Corneliu Porumboiu.
- [on the Romanian New Wave] I think there is a wave. It really started with Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005). Then Cristian Mungiu changes his point of view on cinema, because his first film, Occident (2002), was something else, and he approached cinema in a different way after that. And Corneliu Porumboiu [12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)] as well. So I think there is both a movement and a leader, in Puiu.
- I grew up in Germany. I liked going to the movies, but my friends and my colleagues didn't. On the weekends, I would go alone to the movies. I went to two or three every week. I liked to be in the cinemas and enter other worlds, to escape the reality. Then it became an obsession and a dream to be part of this and to be a filmmaker.
- [on directing Child's Pose (2013)] When the cinematographer [Andrei Butica] and I made a color correction, I gave him the freedom to do it by himself. This was a process I applied to the whole making of this movie. For example, we shot a lot of material because we had only 30 days for shooting. We had two digital cameras, so we [had them] running nonstop and I gave the editor the freedom to make the first versions of the cut. Also during shooting, the [cinematographer] and the cameraman, I left them the freedom to [roam with] the camera and show what they are interested in. (...) It was an exercise because the story was very close to me. I wanted to break loose, otherwise I thought I would be too subjective, too focused on that. Normally, I'm a control freak.
- [why bureaucracy is a major theme in Romanian films] It's an obsession. It's the experience of the country. You face these things and they are getting into you. These are things you want to bring out. It's like therapy, you have to pull it out of yourself, to escape from these things.
- [on the Romanian New Wave philosophy] I think the most important thing is that in our films we are trying to be as honest as we can.
- It's quite difficult to make a commercial film in Romania. The only way to make a film that's an art film is to make it for festivals and to sell to many countries. [2014]
- [on Child's Pose (2013)] I wanted this to be very observational, as cold as I could do, because I didn't want to get involved in the emotional story. [2014]
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