Cristian Bota in the Comedy Țăndări

Cristian Bota is one of the most active and appreciated actors of the new generation

Corina Sabău, 26.04.2025, 13:33

Cristian Bota, one of the most active and appreciated actors of the new generation, returns to the big screen in the comedy Țăndări, recently released in cinemas in the country. The debut feature film by Bogdan Naumovici, a well-known creative director in Romania, is inspired by a real event: the participants in the football match organized in a commune would stop every time a funeral procession passed, because the field was adjacent to the cemetery. In the film, Cristian Bota plays Enrique, a young man who is a show-off, recently returned from Spain. This is the first time the actor plays in a comedy and his first collaboration with director Bogdan Naumovici.

Cristian Bota spoke to RRI about this experience.

“It was first of all a new experience, because I had never acted in a comedy before. I had acted in a series, “Black Money”, which could have resembled a comedy, but I chose to emphasize other things there, I tried to emphasize the innocence of the character and the seriousness of the situation he was in. That’s why I think it was a great challenge to act in a comedy and to assume that I was doing just that, that I was doing everything possible to be funny. I think it was also a fear of mine not to expose myself in this kind of commercial comedy, because I am a fan of art films. However, since I am old, 32 years old, I decided that I had to overcome all my barriers, no matter what they were. And from now on I want to continue acting in comedy because I found the joy of playing this kind of character. A comedy involves a different type of filming, of construction and relating to the characters. Art films, they emphasize atmosphere, they pay special attention to image and sound and how these elements are connected, while in commercial comedies it is primarily about the situations in which the characters find themselves, comedies have a lot of text and a very high dynamism, a different speed. However, there are some rules in comedy, some rules according to which the punchlines are written, a rhythm, a dynamism built in such a way that the audience does not get bored.”

Cristian Bota, a graduate of the National University of Theatre and Film Arts in Bucharest, has been involved in over 20 projects so far. He has starred in the series “The Clan” (directed by Anghel Damian), “Black Money” (directed by Daniel Sandu), as well as in many feature films, including: “Dad Moves the Mountains” (2021, directed by Daniel Sandu), “Heidi” (2019, directed by Cătălin Mitulescu), “A Step Behind the Seraphim” (2017, directed by Daniel Sandu), “Perfectly Healthy” (2017, directed by Anca Damian), “Octav” (2017, directed by Serge Ioan Celibidachi). His first leading role was in “Poarta Albă” (2014), a drama directed by Nicolae Mărgineanu, which tells the story of the lives of prisoners in the labor camps at the Danube-Black Sea Canal, created by the communist regime. Here is Cristian Bota:

“The White Gate marks my debut in a feature film and also means meeting director Nicolae Mărgineanu, who, along with Stere Gulea, is among the most experienced directors in our country. And yes, I like to give my all, just like I did in this film. That’s how I do it in life, with my children, and on the tennis court. I don’t know how to do things any other way, I don’t know how to work without getting emotionally involved. I can’t do things if I don’t really love them, I can’t do things that I don’t believe in. And collaborations like this force me to do things this way, and I think that’s how I’ll continue to do them from now on.”

Cristian Bota also had an important role in one of the most successful Romanian short films of recent years, “A Night in Tokoriki” (2016), by Roxana Stroe. The film was made as part of a master’s degree at film and theater school, and won the special award for best short film from the international jury of the Generation 14plus section at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Best Picture Award at the Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival.

“Roxana Stroe is, I could say, my favorite director and I’m sorry she hasn’t made her feature film debut yet. She’s a director who knows how to make me stand out very well, I think the best of all the directors I’ve worked with. Apart from the Berlin Film Festival, where it was awarded, A Night in Tokoriki has been shown in many festivals and I think it’s the most successful film I’ve ever acted in, even though it’s a short film. I’ve also acted in two other short films directed by Roxana Stroe, one of which is Appalachia, in which I play a blond biker. She also made a film in London, and I collaborated on that one too. It’s a joy for me to work with her and, indeed, A Night in Tokoriki is also one of the projects I care about a lot.”

Cristian Bota wrote and directed the short films Karmasutra, nominated for the Gopo Awards, and Lame Duck (2016) and is currently working on a new film.