GABRIEL SANDU

DIRECTOR

Collaborator

Personal data

Gabriel Sandu is a multidisciplinary theater and film artist, director, and screenwriter, with extensive experience in both film and theater acting as well as journalism. He holds a Master's degree in Dramatic Writing from the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș and is currently pursuing a PhD at the same university within the Faculty of Theater. His plays have been translated into English, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Greek, and the productions he has directed in Bucharest and other theaters across the country have been selected for national and international festivals. His first short fiction film, “Dislocated,” was selected for competition at TIFF 2022 in the ZFR section. Gabriel also presented the work-in-progress documentary “Ego trip” at SAC@Malmaison during the White Night of Galleries event, a documentary about narcissistic abuse. Sandu is passionate about the docu-fiction genre, often using investigative journalism tools to document the themes of his works and then resorting to fiction to explore various performative dimensions. A striking example is his play “My Father, the Priest", inspired by the true story of a priest who advocated against homosexuality while his own son is gay. The play has been staged twice, first at the Târgu Mureș National Theater, directed by Leta Popescu, and later at the Apollo111 Theater, directed by Elena Morar. Both productions were selected for numerous theater festivals, with the latter being part of the official selection of the 2018 National Theater Festival. Gabriel was nominated for the dramaturgy of the play "My Father, the Priest" at the Bucharest Fringe Festival. Gabriel has a broad theater experience, working in various forms of production, from socially-themed devised theater ("Europes", coordinated by Armel Roussel at the National Theater in Brussels, Belgium, or “Worker 2.0” directed by Ioana Păun at the Fabric of Brushes in Cluj). Gabriel is also a passionate educator, working with young people since 2009, through the Forum of Youth Association, where he leads personal development workshops for teenagers from very diverse backgrounds. In Constanța, he directed, alongside Elena Morar, the play “10 Things We Forgot at the Mamaia Festival", based on his own script.