Country: Belgium, Romania, Netherlands, Germany
Year: 2026
Duration: 91'
When violence erupts before the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium, killing 39 people, the mayor’s daughter and a journalist with Italian roots are drawn into the heart of the tragedy, caught between professional duty, family loyalty, and moral responsibility.
Biography
film director
Teodora Ana Mihai
Teodora Ana Mihai (Bucharest, Romania, 1981) moved to Belgium in 1989 with her parents, fleeing from Ceausescu’s dictatorship. She then moved to San Francisco, where she finished high school and decided to get into the world of cinema. When she returned to Belgium, she worked as script supervisor and assistant director, writing also for the television show Man Bijt Hond. She directed her first documentary Civil War Essay in 2000. She is currently collaborating with the young Mexican writer Habacuc Antonio de Rosario; The Disposables, the project they are working on, is a film dedicated the orphans of the war on drug cartels in Mexico.
FILMOGRAFIA
Civil War Essay (doc., 2000), Waiting for August (doc., 2014).
Declaration
film director
“There is one line in Heysel 85, spoken by the protagonist: ‘We are still human, aren’t we, or does there come a point when that stops?’ It’s a question I ask myself every day, observing the social and geopolitical state of the world. The mechanisms of distraction and spectacle, the bread and circuses, are still very much alive. More than ever, I feel the need to remain alert, to resist complacency, and to make choices that align with what I believe is the right side of history: the side that questions, challenges, and acts responsibly, not superficially, so as not to repeat the cycles of intolerance and polarization that have brought misery throughout history.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Teodora Ana Mihai. SCREENPLAY: Teodora Ana Mihai, Lode Desmet e Isabelle Darras. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Marius Panduru. EDITING: Bert Jacobs. PRODUCTION DESIGN: Hendrik Van Kets. COSTUMES: Linda Maria Bogers. MUSIC: Anna Katharina Bauer. SOUND: Senjan Jansen. CAST: Violet Braeckman, Matteo Simoni, Josse De Pauw, Fabrizio Rongione, Paolo Calabresi, Bobby Schofield, Ben Segers. PRODUCTION: Hans Everaert for Menuetto Film. COPRODUCTION: Frans van Gestel for Topkapi Films; Anette Unger, Sven Rudat for Leitwolf Film; Delphine Tomson for Les Films du Fleuve. CONTACT: Plaion Pictures - https://plaionpictures.com/
