Synopsis

In Brezhnev days of Soviet Union, a promising orchestra conductor Andreï Filipov is discharged because of his disobedience to the Party's anti- Jewish policy. His oppressed passion for music finds an escape one day when Andreï, now a janitor of Bolshoi Theatre, happens to see a fax message from Châtelet Theatre of Paris in the director's room. The message, which is an invitation for Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, sparks an idea in his head which result in gathering his expelled Jewish colleagues and their concert tour in Paris instead of Bolshoi's. Only one thing is in Andreï's mind: to perform a violin concerto of Tchaikovsky with a young violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet. What's the relationship between them, and why their choice has to be that concerto? The film illustrates pain of Soviet musicians, who suffers from political pressure in their pre-Perestroika era. The director Radu Mihaileanu, who was born in Romania, has kept an energetic directing career. Recollecting his own childhood in Ceausescu days, he conducts warmhearted humor with elegant melodies in The Concert. The composer Armand Amar's second collaboration with the director rewarded him with the César Award. Through the story of musicians who has never left the chord only the collaboration can achieve, and the chord which revives as a Tchaikovsky's beautiful tune at histories theatre of Châtelet, the film delivers not only the moving power of music but also the passion for overcoming a shattered past by that power.

Director

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  • Radu Mihaileanu
  • Born in 1958 in Bucharest, Romania. Radu Mihaileanu, who escaped the oppression of the Ceausescu dictatorship in 1980 and moved to France via Israel, graduated from the French National Film School, IDHEC. He made his first feature film "The Traitor" (1993), which deals with the hardships of anti-Soviet poets under Stalin’s regime. He gained widespread attention with "Train of Life" (1998), which depicts the Nazi’s extermination of Jews from a unique perspective, winning awards at the Venice and Sundance Film Festivals. "Live and Become" (2005) won accolades at the Berlin Film Festival. His fourth feature film "The Concert" won the César Award for Best Music in France in 2010, attracting over 400,000 viewers and achieving great commercial success.