British director David Kinsella plans to direct a feature film adapting Romanian author Doina Ruşti's novel The Fiancée (Logodnica), Adevarul reported.

The director is also featured as a character in the novel, which tells a love story partly set in Bucharest.

Kinsella, who resides in Norway, is connected to Romania through the many friends he has in the country. The director was looking to have his experience turned into a book and film producer Dan Burlac thought of writer Doina Ruşti.

“David is also linked to Romania, where he has many friends who know his life and passions. And one of these passions was to be transformed into a book. Without hesitation, my thoughts went to Doina Rusti, the master of words and stories that fascinated me. Like all of us, David was conquered by her narrative charm, he asked her to write his love story. Someone else sometimes sees better than oneself the hidden keys in a series of events. But that was not David's main reason. He wanted to experience the character condition. To feel on his own skin the ruthless eyes of the spectator. Of course, he imagined that Doina would follow the deeds he himself had confessed, which was impossible, given her outspoken originality,” Burlac explained.

The novel merges two confessions and was written in three months, according to the book presentation. “The Fiancée brings not only David's love story, but also a parable about East and West, about the extremes of Europe.” It is published in Romanian by Polirom publishing house.

Doina Rusti lives in Bucharest and is a university professor and scriptwriter. Her work has been translated into nine languages so far. She was the guest of numerous international book fairs and events. She is known for the thematic diversity of her solidly constructed novels, most of which have been published by Polirom. They include Zogru (2006, 2013), The Ghost in the Mill (2008), a novel about the communist period in Romania, which was awarded the Union of Writers Prize for Prose, and Lizoanca at Age Eleven (2009), which won the Romanian Academy’s Ion Creanga Prize. More about her here.

The novel will have be launched on September 21, at the Humanitas Cismigiu bookstore in Bucharest.

The film's website is here. The book can be ordered here.

editor@romania-insider.com