Hello! How Are You?

After 20 years of marriage GABRIEL and GABRIELA don’t feel any attraction to each other anymore. Is this all life can give?

After a couple of nights of chatting on the internet with strangers they both think they found the perfect lover. But what they don’t know is that they have actually  found each other. The passionate and strangely familiar feelings each develops for their new lover mix with the guilt associated with preparing to cheat on a lifetime partner.

Even more confused is their 17-years-old son, VLADIMIR, who observes the love affairs of his parents from the perspective of a teenager growing up.

One day, the encounter of the two virtual lovers becomes inevitable.

“Hello! How are you?” is probably the most well known film I have directed.

Alissa Simon writes in Variety magazine: “The antithesis of the grim naturalism of the best-known new Romanian cinema, helmer Alexandru Maftei’s bittersweet romantic comedy “Hello! How Are You?” feels like a breath of fresh air, proving that even more commercial films can deliver emotional epiphanies.”

This film was presented in over 30 international film festivals: Karlovy Vary 2011 (in the section Ten European Directors to Watch recommended by Variety), Cairo (2010), Palm Springs, Dublin, Monaco (Prize for Most Promising Director, Special Prize of the Jury), Go East Wiesbaden, Goa-India, Vilnius, Bratislava, Cluj, Beirut, Chicago, Iasi (Special Prize of the Jury), Madrid, Bruxelles, Washington, New York, Chennai, Sighisoara, Tokio, Minneapolis, Mill Valley, Palic, Vukovar, Osaka, Istambul, Cleveland, Porthland, Miami Beach, Berwick, South East European Film Festival Los Angeles (Audience Award) . The film was sold in more than 20 countries woldwide.

The idea of the movie started from a short article in Dilema Veche Magazine.