Gabriel Sandu (b.1988) is a theater and film artist with a strong interest in the docu-fiction genre. He utilizes investigative journalism tools to document the themes in his creations, incorporating fiction to explore new dimensions of performance. His theater plays have been translated into English, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Greek, and have been featured in various national and international festivals. His short fiction film, “Dislocated,” was selected for the ZFR competition at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2022. His show “Enmity v2.0,” produced at Teatrelli in Bucharest, was presented at the International Theatre Festival Sibiu (FITS) in 2022, and his work “Trauma Kink” from Teatrul Dramaturgilor Romani has been chosen for the Synergy International Theater Festival in Novi Sad and will be showcased in 2023 at Riverside Studios in London.
Currently, Gabriel is actively developing multiple documentary and fiction film projects. His work addresses religious interference in artistic freedom of expression and the human rights of marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ community. Productions such as “My Father, the Priest,” “Poor Iulia,” and “Forgot” have been staged in various venues, from national theaters to independent spaces. Gabriel’s approach involves using journalistic tools for research and later fictionalizing the material for dramatic purposes, resulting in a docu-fiction genre.
Both the plays he has written and the shows he has directed have received recognition and awards at national festivals. “I forgot” (Uitasem), a fictionalization of a real case involving a Romanian boy raised to believe he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, was nominated for the best play at the Focus Drama Awards in 2018 and received the jury prize for best acting performances at the Bucharest Fringe Festival in 2020. “Poor Julia” won the first prize at Bacău Monodrame, and “My Father, the Priest” was nominated for the best play of the year at the Bucharest Fringe Festival.
In July 2018, Gabriel’s play “Who called the fascists to our theater?” was read in Catalan at Sala Beckett in Barcelona as part of the Obrador D’estiu program, a renowned platform for contemporary drama in Europe.
Gabriel has extensive experience in theater, working on various types of productions, including social theater and musicals such as “West Side Story.” He also founded the online magazine Brrlog (active between 2016-2019) and contributed to VICE, where he published investigative reports. Since 2019, he has ventured into directing his own shows, having directed three performances and a short film called “Dislocat. Home Away,” which explores themes of isolation, friendship, and mental health in a vertical phone format. The film premiered in the national magazine Libertatea and received positive feedback from both the audience and critics, who praised Gabriel’s innovative use of performative tools.
Currently, Gabriel is developing several documentary and fiction film projects.
His work spans the spectrum of religious interference in artistic freedom of expression or in the human rights of marginalised groups, such as the LGBTQ community. Titles such as ”My Father, the Priest”, ”Poor Iulia” or ”Forgot” have been produced in various venues across the country, from national theatres to independent spaces. As his choice of topics address societal events, using the research through journalistic instruments and at a latter stage fictionalization for dramatic purpose, the final result more often falls into the docu-fiction genre.
Both the plays he wrote and the shows he directed have been showcased in national festivals and won several awards. ”I forgot” (Uitasem), which fictionalise the real case of a Romanian boy raised by his mother to believe he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, was nominated for best play Focus Drama Awards in 2018 and won the jury prize for best acting performances at Bucharest Fringe Festival in 2020. ”Poor Julia” has won the first prize in Bacău Monodrame and ”My Father, the Priest” was nominated for best play of the year at Bucharest Fringe Festival.
In July 2018, the play “Who called the fascists to our theater?” was read in Catalan at Sala Beckett in Barcelona, in the Obrador D’estiu – one of the most renowned programs for contemporary drama in Europe.
Gabriel has extensive experience in theater, working in various forms of productions, from social theater in divised formula (”Europes”, coordinated by Armel Roussel at the National Theater in Brussels, Belgium or “Worker 2.0” directed by Ioana Păun at the Fabrica de Pensule in Cluj) to musicals such as West Side Story, directed by Răzvan Mazilu.
Gabriel is the founding editor of the online magazine Brrlog (active between 2016-2019), and was a regular contributor to VICE where he published investigative reports. As of 2019, he also started directing his own shows, by 2021 having three performances under his direction and a short movie, called ”Dislocat. Home Away”, an experiment about isolation, friendship and mental health created especially for watching in vertical phone format and premiered in the national magazine Libertatea. Both the shows and the film were well received positive feedback from the public, with critics praising Sandu’s strange and dynamic remix of performative tools.
Gabriel Sandu links in BIO 