Stampila

Director - David Larson

David Larson is a first time writer/director who grew up in Malibu, California. He received business degrees from Berkeley and Wharton, and worked on Wall Street. Following the September 11th attacks, David changed course and joined the Peace Corps serving first in West Africa and later Central Asia. David’s first film, “Stampila” (The Stamp), chronicles the fictional overthrow of a real Moldovan oligarch, filmed on location in Moldova while the real oligarch was still in power.

Director Statement

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe. It was controlled for years by a powerful oligarch known as “The Puppet Master.” In 2014, The Puppet Master and his associates looted over a billion dollars from the Moldovan treasury. This is the largest public theft in modern European history.

In 2018, The Puppet Master was at the height of his power. He controlled Moldova’s executive branch, parliamentary majority, and most of the country’s media. He even hired American political advisors to help him keep power. (One of his advisors went on to work for President Trump as Director of National Intelligence). The Puppet Master was both well-connected and above the law.

I personally believe that oligarchy (rule by a corrupt few) is the greatest threat to human freedom. I first experienced oligarchy 20 years ago when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan (another ex-Soviet Republic controlled by an oligarch). I lived through the bloodless Kyrgyz “Tulip Revolution,” and watched from my village as the people rose up and seized power from the oligarchs controlling their country. From that experience, I learned that oligarchs can only stay in power as long as people are afraid of them. Without fear, they will fall.

In the autumn of 2018, I travelled from America to Moldova to direct “Stampila” (The Stamp), a fictional story that I believed would help shatter The Puppet Master’s untouchable image. Stampila tells the story of a fictional Moldovan oligarch being overthrown by his people. My film is the first ever American-Moldovan coproduction. We filmed the movie in just 21 shooting days, entirely on location in Moldova, while The Puppet Master still controlled the country. To avoid jail, we told the government we were shooting a love story. During production we survived government summons, cancelled locations, threatened actors, stolen footage, and many other obstacles.

We hid the true nature of our film until our final shooting day. On that day we filmed the finale scene depicting the start of the revolution in the capital city’s main square. We used over 400 Moldovan extras playing the role of protestors holding signs against the Puppet Master. In such a tiny country, word spreads fast, and stories about our shoot made it to local tv news outlets that weren’t controlled by the oligarch. The next day, we smuggled our footage out of the country in a van to Romania, and I boarded a flight back to America.

Just 6 months later, life imitated art and the Puppet Master actually fell from power. He is now hiding out in Turkey, and is a wanted criminal in Moldova. It took us 5 years of post-production setbacks, but we are now ready to show our completed film that helped break an oligarch's image of invincibility and contribute to his fall him from power. I am proud to say that “Stampila” will soon premier in Moldova’s capital city, a place we were once forced to flee.