Dan Nuțu

Acting

Dan Nuțu

Born 1944-03-17

Dan Nuțu is a Romanian stage and film actor and producer, also known for his involvement in documentary filmmaking and film education. A graduate of the Institute of Theatre and Film Arts (IATC) in 1966, Nuțu began his career at the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest. He rose to prominence in cinema with his role in Sunday at Six (Duminică la ora 6, 1965), the debut feature of director Lucian Pintilie, where he played a young communist underground activist. Throughout the late 1960s, he became emblematic of a new type of screen presence in Romanian cinema—intense, rebellious, and emotionally vulnerable. Film critic Tudor Caranfil famously described him as “the tough-yet-vulnerable face of 1960s Romanian cinema.” He went on to appear in notable films such as Meanders (*Meandre*, 1967) and The Mornings of a Sensible Boy (*Diminețile unui băiat cuminte*, 1967), consolidating his image as a nonconformist youth figure during a transformative period in Romanian filmmaking. In 1979, Nuțu left Romania and settled in the United States, where he worked as a taxi driver while remaining loosely connected to the film and theater world, mostly in minor or background roles. After the fall of communism, he gradually reconnected with the Romanian film industry. Beginning in 2005, he became involved in the **Aristoteles Workshop**, an international documentary filmmaking program supported by ARTE and TVR, mentoring and supporting new generations of documentary filmmakers. Today, Dan Nuțu remains a cult figure of the Romanian New Wave’s precursor generation—an actor whose brief but striking 1960s film career left a lasting imprint on Romanian cinema history.

Acting credits

Sunday at Six poster
6.4

Romania, 1940. A boy meets a girl. They fall in love without suspecting anything about their real identities. They chose an eventful, tense and dangerous life as underground anti-fascists fighters. The significance of their activity is manifest in the consequences it has on the tormented progress of their love. Reality is against it. Two parallel lines which meet for a second, only to drift apart for ever.

Sunday at Six

1965

The Mornings of a Sensible Youth poster
6.5

After graduating from high school and failing the university entrance exam, young Vive leaves his parents’ home in order to find his own way in life and assert his independence.

The Mornings of a Sensible Youth

1967

No artwork available
5.4

A communist prefect saves the day, saves the night, saves the building and the people. A communist prefect saves the day, saves the night, saves the building and the people.

The Siege

1971

Working Girls poster
6.2

A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.

Working Girls

1987

Man and Dog poster
8.2

Infidelity drama, male egos, lost dogs in Startsladden favorite Stefan Constantinescu’s arthouse gem about a man consumed by jealousy who risks losing everything while searching for the truth.

Man and Dog

2022

Steps in the Sky poster
7.4

Ion is the head of workers' team who install high-voltage lines in the mountains. He discovers a design error that could put many lives in jeopardy and knows that the chief designer is Valeria, his ex-girlfriend from adolescent days.

Steps in the Sky

1977

The Hope poster
NR

The film presents the evolution of Ștefan Gheorghiu, from a humble worker in Concordia oil company to a journalist, then a fighter for workers' rights and organizer of the trade union movement in Romania.

The Hope

1979

Astray poster
7.2

In the communist Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu, a young Romanian woman marries a German citizen just to leave the country.

Astray

1978

Meanders poster
6.5

Petru and Constantin, former faculty mates, have different views concerning their lives and professions; while the former has a bright imagination, is very creative and daring, the latter is looking only for personal comfort and material satisfaction. They contend for the same woman – but even if she loves Petru, she marries Constantin for his material condition. Though he finds in Constantin an adversary who does not hesitate to remove him, Petru will surpass him professionally.

Meanders

1966

Melodii, melodii poster
8.4

A young light music band accepts the offer of a shady impresario whose "arrangements" can't prevent their triumph on the seaside.

Melodii, melodii

1978

Bariera poster
7.2

In 1942, Nea' Vitu is in trouble with his children: a son is fascinated by the world of war profiteers, and the daughter is going around with the speculator "Treispemii" (Dan Nutu). On the evening of her engagement, Vitu is denounced by his son for hiding an illegal printing press in a painter's house. Thirty years later, he returns to the slum and searches for the Vitu family. They no longer live there, the neighbors have changed, and he investigates to find out what happened to them. Nea Vițu, you raise your daughter, Rădița, and son Fănică. His wife Dorina died when Fănică was born. Apparently, family problems are difficult barriers to overcome. He's an honest man. He gets angry at the slick Fănică. Fănică is also chased away by the slum priest, because he wanted to make a new bible... where he'd be Fănică the God .... Rădița goes around with the speculator "Treispemii". In 1942, nea Vițu joins the fight against the Nazis and runs an illegal printing house with a painter...

Bariera

1972

Postcards with Wildflowers poster
8.2

In 1970s Romania, Laura, a young architect, becomes pregnant by her married lover, Titel. Desperate and alone, she travels to a remote town for an illegal abortion. There, she meets Irina, a local girl who tries to change her mind.

Postcards with Wildflowers

1975

Shootings Under the Moonlight poster
7.5

During 1947 Romania's Communist Security Forces hunt down the last anti-Communist resistance fighters in the remote mountain villages of Transylvania.

Shootings Under the Moonlight

1977

Then the Legend was Born poster
6.3

Used to move along with the construction projects they were working for, a group of people decide that is time to settle.

Then the Legend was Born

1969

Fürchte dich nicht, Jakob! poster
8.0

The village innkeeper Lejba Sibal and his pregnant wife Sura are threatened by Lejba's former farmhand Georg, who wants to kill them both at Easter. After Lejba has sought help from the authorities in vain, he decides to fight back himself.

Fürchte dich nicht, Jakob!

1982

Beyond the Sands poster
6.8

Bad luck and bad judgment follow two generations of men in this Rumanian tragedy, set in the World War II era. Ion (Dan Nutu) seeks to find out why many years ago his father was falsely accused of being a communist, an accusation which led to his execution. He discovers that his father's mistress, now married to a wealthy man, made the accusation for money, as she was deathly afraid of poverty. Ion's own girlfriend seems to be similarly concerned about issues of livelihood, and abandons him for a richer suitor. Frustrated and angry, he burns down these couple's houses and takes up with some anti-communist arms smugglers.

Beyond the Sands

1974

The Hundred Lei Bill poster
5.9

Arguing with his parents, Petre, a teenager, moves at his bigger brother, Andrei, a successful actor. There he meets Dora, one of his brother's young fans. When Andrei gives the girl his attention, Petre feels abandoned and runs away without even taking the hundred lei bill his brother had given him. A car runs Petre down. When he learns about this tragic accident, Andrei realizes - while watching his own smiling face in a musical on TV - that underneath his glittering success, he lives an empty life.

The Hundred Lei Bill

1973

Farewell, Dear Nela! poster
5.2

When a rich Romanian lawyer aims to find his 2 long-lost sons and inheritors he places an ad in the newspaper but many crooks show up instead.

Farewell, Dear Nela!

1972

A Summer Tale poster
8.0

The rise and fall of the opportunistic Tănase Scatiu, a boyar in 19th century Wallachia.

A Summer Tale

1976

Ora zero poster
7.3

In New Year's Eve night, an emergency team is called to fix a tram power line. One member is missing though, he is involved in a DUI.

Ora zero

1979

The Blue Gates of the City poster
7.8

After recovering in hospital from an assault by one of his subordinates, Second Lieutenant Roșu returns to lead his anti-aircraft artillery unit during the final days of World War II.

The Blue Gates of the City

1974

Sick Animals poster
6.5

The murder of two workers and a high school student triggers a series of investigations, the conclusions of which are eagerly awaited. After several attempts, a sergeant manages to catch the killer.

Sick Animals

1970

Puzzle poster
6.4

A repressed middle aged man realizes that his life had become one of misery and loneliness. After becoming friends with a blind writer he had to evict from his house, he finds the inspiration and courage he needs to break all the rules he had been forced to abide by and to reconnect with life's joy and excitement.

Puzzle

2013

Ion: The Lust for the Land, the Lust for Love poster
8.5

Jon, a young peasant love more "the land" than his engaged girlhood, Florica.Just when Ion thinks he has become master of his own land, he realizes that he has betrayed his heart, and that he is still in love with Florica, not with his wife. It is the curse of love that will be Ion's undoing. Badly mistreated, Ana, his wife, is driven to despair and she hangs herself. Ion, now free and wealthy, believes that the time has come for him to have Florica. Florica's husband, George waylays Ion and savagely murders him with a hoe.

Ion: The Lust for the Land, the Lust for Love

1980

Behind the camera