Acting
Apr 30, 1962
Bucharest, Romania
Maia Morgenstern
Acting
Biography
A Romanian film and stage actress, described by Florin Mitu of AMOS News as "a symbol of Romanian theater and film". In the English-speaking world, she is probably best known for the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. In Romania, she has been nationally known since her 1992 role as Nela in Balanţa, a film known in the United States as The Oak, set during the waning days of Communist Romania. Description above from the Wikipedia article Maia Morgenstern, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (69)
An exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.
Ulysses' Gaze
Nothing seems to threaten the quiet and happy life of Alexandra and Mircea, a couple who's both admired and envied: love, successful careers, and wealth. And nothing seems to ever threaten the very special relation between a renowned university teacher and one her most gifted student, Alexandra and Corina: two women, two friends who, against the age gap, share the same goals, the same interests. Even the same love interests. Until one day, when the sensibility is stronger than the reason. And all of a sudden, everything that seemed certain, such as friendship, loyalty, love and devotion, turns into a terrible hate.
Damen tango
After the war, in Bucharest, a young Romanian poet arrested for having written an article denouncing Stalinist crimes, will save his life by accepting to become a hostage of the regime.
Betrayal
A couple of Italo-American journalists go missing during their work assignment in Romania.
Kidnapped in Romania
At 41, Erwin Kobarek still lives with his mother, with whom he runs a petrol station in the countryside. A relationship has not yet materialized for Erwin. When his mother senses that her son needs a wife, she sends Erwin to a marriage agency in Romania. And indeed, Erwin returns with a young Romanian woman, Irina Bobescu. She sets something irreversible in motion in him: the detachment from his mother and the moulting from boy to belated man.
My Mother, My Bride And I
A description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become like her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucharest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing at everything.
The Oak
Eva meets Tudor on the day of her 16th birthday. It is Tudor who is to make her feel whole as a woman. He becomes for her a source of both love and suffering through his constant mysterious departures and reappearances.
Eva
Although it was shot on the set of director Mel Gibson's controversial epic The Passion of the Christ, this thought-provoking documentary is not about the making of the movie. Rather, filmmakers Francesco Cabras and Alberto Molinari delve into the nature of divinity and spiritual beliefs through revealing interviews with Gibson and members of his cast and crew -- including stars Jim Caviezel and Monica Bellucci.
The Big Question
Centers on the Klein family, who live in a remote house in the mountains. Considered the black sheep, youngest son Jean is thrown out. Angry and threatening, he arrives at Nils and Ida's chalet for a hunting expedition. The next day, he learns how to kill. The following night, his mother's car is set on fire and he is blamed. He disappears into the mountains with a gun. On the third day, it pours down with rain and, in the evening, a storm brews. Shut up in their house, the Klein family await with dread the return of Jean, who will challenge them, weapon in hand.
The End of Silence
An expressionist biography of Edith Stein, who converted from the Jewish faith to the Catholic one and became a Carmelite sister. She would die in a German concentration camp.
The Seventh Room
Television & Series (4)
"Las Fierbinti" is a Romanian drama-comedy series set in a fictional small village, where everyday life, local politics, and village gossip turn into humor and chaos.
