Romanian producer Ada Solomon 3 films in competition at Locarno

Dracula, the new film by Romanian provocateur Radu Jadu ( Kontinental '25 , Don't Expect Too Much from the End of the World ), premiered in the competition at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Among the co-producer credits is Romanian producer Ada Solomon ( Toni Erdmann , Aferim! ), known for her work through her microfilm company and her long-standing collaboration with Jude.

But Salomón has been much busier in Locarno than most. She has the same co-producer credit on Hana Jušić's Locarno competition film, God Won't Help , about a Chilean woman who enters a tightly structured and isolated mountain community of Croatian shepherds in the early 20th century, claiming to be the widow of her émigré brother.

Additionally, Solomon is a producer on Sorella di Clausura , her third competition film at the Swiss festival this year. "Stela fell in love with a Balkan musician after seeing him on television. Determined to meet him, she accepts the help of Vera, a glamorous star rumored to be his lover," its synopsis reads. "Their worlds collide when Vera promises to rescue Stela from her poverty-stricken life by taking her to Bucharest, where he runs a sex product business."

Solomon spoke with Thr about his busy Locarno, his focus on storytellers and their motivation, false idols, and how cinema can spark the dialogue the world may need now more than ever.

"I have to say that, not because I have three films in the International Competition, but the Locarno selection this year is absolutely spectacular," says Solomon. "And it's truly an honor to have the films presented there."

Her three films in the Locarno competition are distinct. “They have some things in common, in a way, but they’re very, very different,” says Salomon Thr . “There’s Ivana’s punkiness. Obviously, Radu has this irreverent way of presenting a cinematic story. And Hana’s God Won’t Help Us is still something.”

What are the common themes? “ God Won't Help is about the bond between two very different women, which is similar to what's happening in Sorella, even though they're completely different propositions,” the producer explains. “Sorella is very loud and crowded, whereas God Won't Help is a very peaceful, quiet, contemplative, and slow-paced film. But they touch on some similar things.”

People have also said that Sorel has some of the Dracula qualities. “When they talk about these two films, they mention this boldness of approach, even though Sorel is much more narrative,” says Solomon. “In the end, it’s an anti-romantic melodrama with a lot of humor.”

Locarno was the first major festival where Solomon had a film in competition, as a minority producer on Federico Bondi’s Black Sea in 2008. The film won the Ecumenical Jury Prize and a Silver Leopard Best Actress honor for Ilaria Occhini.

Now, Solomon is approaching the 100-film mark.

His approach is clear. “It’s always about the storyteller,” says Salomón Thr . “I work with authors who can tell a visual story. I’m looking for their motivation. That’s always my first question: Why this story? Why this project? Because we embark on a journey that can take five, six, seven years. Well, with Radu, Radu, it’s much less, but that’s something different. He’s quite particular in many, many respects, but overall, it’s a long journey. The same values, and I don’t have something to learn from this experience, I’m not interested, because it’s a process and an exchange.”

For Salomón, cinema is also about exchange with the audience. “For me, it’s very important that cinema has something to say, to pose a question through emotions. That’s art for me in general, and in some ways, it’s also my civic contribution,” he explains. “I think I can contribute, in a way, to a better understanding of the world we’re living in. And I think we need this kind of dialogue more than ever, because we’re living in a troubled world. The challenges are so complex because false or not, one-sided perspectives are dominating our information universe. And there’s so little room for dialogue, so only emotions can make one-sided perspectives do the depth, and it’s about me being the money, and this isn’t what it’s about. Content, the quality of the content.”

The challenges of moving from communist to capitalist systems play a key role in some of the films Solomon has worked on. “This transition and this transformation and the question of where we go from here is a theme,” she says. “I mean, it’s more than 35 years after the revolution already, since the fall of the [Iron Curtain], and we have a bit of distance. The 90s and even the early 2000s were quite chaotic, and we didn’t have time to analyze and contemplate what was happening. It was all upheaval, events, changes, discoveries, etc.”

Things have changed. "Now we're somewhat established, but we're back at a crucial point of crisis worldwide, and we look back and say, 'Fuck, we had such a good life, and we complained all the time. But those were the good times!' Now we're going to hell very quickly.

What Microfilm is doing next is centered around the Sarajevo Film Festival, which kicked off on Friday. It also presents Sorel and God in its feature competition, plus Alișveriș by director Vasile Todinca as part of its short film competition .

That short is a key focus for Salomón. "It's very dear and important to me, because the new generation in the company, my partner, Diana Caravia, is in her early 30s, and is growing. We're a collective of producers, and we're completely equal in the company. We're putting together projects. It's Diana and Carla Fotea, along with me."

Each partner has a slightly different approach. "Diana is much more interested in things that are a little more experimental, a little more genre-driven," Solomon explains. "While Carla is very deeply involved in storytelling and the way a story is delivered, she's also very involved in documentaries. So, it's a mix, and that makes it a pleasure."

Solomon and Microfilm have more in the works. “Right now I’m very focused on Alexandru Solomon’s new film, Small Expectations ,” she tells Thr . “It’s a project that will focus on the aftermath of last year’s Romanian elections. And I think it’s a very important project or exploration of what was happening. And it doesn’t just affect Romania, but it’s also about what’s happening with the rise of extremism and why voters are turning to extremism and nationalism.”

Sorel touches on that topic as well. "It's become even more timely since we started that project six years ago, because it speaks so much to these false idols who build their public image on different kinds of screens," says Ada Solomon.

Alexandru Solomon, her husband, also has another project, called The Archive of Archives, a film about the National Archives of Romania and the people who work there. “It’s a film about the preservation of memory,” explains Ada Solomon. “How do we choose what to keep and what to throw away? It talks about this small community of experts at the national archives in Romania, but it also talks more broadly about sustainability, memory, heritage, about how we are writing history.”

In September, filming will begin on another microfilm project, Alina șerban's new feature, I Knew Her . "She's a fantastic Roma director, contemporary artist, and activist who will deliver a very personal story translated into fiction," says Solomon. "It's the story of a survivor, not a victim, seen from a Roma perspective, which will be a first, seeing the life of a young Roma woman on screen."

It's a film that fits Salomón's approach of shining a light on untold stories and challenging audiences. "It's a story without victimization, without pointing fingers," she says, "but built to empower people—the marginalized or the disenfranchised—to take their destiny into their own hands and overcome challenges."

Before Solomon returns to his busy schedule, he mentions another project that fits his focus, Eugen Jebeleanu's The Price of Gold . "It's about what lies behind the people who are dancing in ballroom," says producer Thr . "It will be a 10-part film, with each part being a typical dance style, like tango, etc.

The film also has another angle. "It also depicts how in this sport, the trophy, for once, isn't the woman, it's the man," explains Salomón. "It's about how the girls' families compete to get the best partner, because there are few men and many young women."

The project fits Salomón's Auteur Focus, but also allows not only the film's audience but also herself to explore something new. "For me, the most interesting thing is trying to do something I haven't done before and from a different perspective," Salomón concludes. "And this is one such project."