Romanian Film Festival

 

California Dreamin' (California Dreamin')

Romania, 2007 (155 min, unfinished cut)
Directed by Cristian Nemescu
Screenplay: Cristian Nemescu, Tudor Voican
Main cast: Armand Assante, Răzvan Vasilescu, Maria Dinulescu

2007 – Un Certain Regard Prize, Cannes
2007 – Satyajit Ray Prize, 51st Times London Film Festival
2007 – Grand Prix, Auteur Film Festival, Belgrade
2007 – Grand Prix, « International Competition of First and Second Feature Films » section, Bratislava

1999, during the war in Kosovo. In a small Romanian town Doiaru, the chief of the railway station, who happens to be the local mobster as well, stops a NATO train transporting military equipment. The transport, supervised by American soldiers, is crossing Romania without official documents, based only on verbal approval of the Romanian government. The arrival of the Americans turns the hitherto nondescript settlement into the village of all possibilities.
A love story is born between the rail station chief’s daughter, who wants to leave the dusty village at any cost, and one of the American soldiers. Meanwhile, the American officer in command of the train stirs the villagers to revolt against the chief. In the end the train moves on, leaving behind a village steeped in anarchy...
Home

Short Films I:

-Liviu's Dream (Visul lui Liviu)

Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, 2004, 40 min
Screenplay: Corneliu Porumboiu
Main cast: Dragoş Bucur, Luiza Cocora, Constantin Diţă, Adrian Vancia
A strange nightmarish dream which he forgets every morning on waking up and an accountable feeling make Liviu cast a resigned eye on the world he lives in. Waking up to reality might coincide with the birth of his child.
 

2004 – Best Romanian Film, Transylvania International Film Festival, Cluj-Napoca
2006 – Forum Berlinale

Home

-A Trip to the City

Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, 2003, 19min
Screenplay: Corneliu Porumboiu
Main cast: Ion Sapdaru, Constantin Diţă

One beautiful spring morning, the village teacher and the mayor’s driver get ready for a trip to the nearby city to arrange for the Internet connection to be set up and to purchase the pink WC the mayor’s wife has set her heart on. Once in town, the two find themselves crashing the official celebration of the city’s 854th anniversary. The grand event, together with a pair of pickpockets, endangers the accomplishment of the mission...

2004 – 2nd Cinéfondation Award, Cannes
2004 – Best Short, Cinema Mediteranéen Film Festival, Montpellier
2004 – Official selection – Karlovy Vary, Milano, Cottbus Film Festivals
Home

-Turkey Girl (Curcanii nu zboara)

Directed by Cristian Mungiu, 2005, 20 min.
Screenplay: Cristian Mungiu
Main cast: Ana Ularu, Cristian Vali Popescu, Luminiţa Gheorghiu and Nastase the Turkey

In a remote village in the mountains, a young girl’s mother gets seriously ill and need surgery and permanent medical care. In order to save her mother’s life, the girl spends the money her parents have been saving for their own funerals. When the money is gone, she has to make a further sacrifice.
Home

-Zapping

Directed by Cristian Mungiu, 2000, 14 min.
Main cast: Dorel Vişan, Magda Catone, Ion Fiscuteanu

A parabolic short film about television controlling people’s minds. A less than novel theme, but the fantastic approach sets it apart from the rest, nonetheless.

2000 – Best Director, DaKino Film Festival
Home

 

American Fiancés (Logodnicii din America)

Romania, 2007 (80 min)
Directed by Nicolae Margineanu
Main cast: Marcel Iureş, Maria Ploae, Tamara Creţulescu

Seven characters – five adults and two teenagers – are spending a seemingly peaceful weekend, celebrating Maria’s first visit home after 15 years in the United States. In reality, Maria has returned to find out first-hand why in the States she had been treated as a defector, why her fiancé never followed her and who had recommended her to the Romanian secret services as a possible collaborator.
Over a span of just a few hours, everything becomes dramatically clear to all concerned.
A story about love, friendship and betrayal in times of terror. About truth and its price.
Home

 

Reenactment (Reconstituirea)

Romania, 1968 (drama, 106 min running time)
Directed by Lucian Pintilie
Screenplay: Lucian Pintilie, Horia Pătraşcu
Main cast: George Constantin, Emil Botta, George Mihăiţă, Vladimir Găitan

After one drink too many, two friends start a tavern brawl and end up hurting the bartender. The authorities force them to reenact their fight in front of the camera with the purpose of making an” educational” film. The reconstructed fight ends in tragedy...
Banned by the authorities for 22 years, the film is widely regarded as the best of the Romanian classics.
Home

The Paper Will Be Blue (Hartia va fi albastra)

Romania, 2006 (95 min)
Directed by Radu Muntean

Screenplay: Răzvan Rădulescu; Alexandru Baciu; Radu Muntean
Main cast: Paul Ipate, Adi Carauleanu, Dragoş Bucur, Ion Săpdaru

Lieutenant Neagu's armored unit is ordered to patrol the suburbs. The unit's radio works intermittently and communications between the different armored units and fragments of radio and TV broadcasts give vague reports of "terrorist" attacks on the national television headquarters held by anti-Ceausescu forces. The members of the unit are thrown into confusion. Costi, a conscript who has managed to do his military service in Bucharest thanks to some wrangling by his well-connected father, believes that it is the duty of every Romanian, after so many years of dictatorship, to fight the supporters of Ceausescu, irrespective of the orders of his superiors. His arrogance and stubbornness brings him into conflict with Lieutenant Neagu and he takes advantage of an altercation between his comrade and a group of demonstrators to flee. Despite the Lieutenant's threats and pleas, Costi heads for the television station to fight for the revolution...

2006 – Best Director, Cottbus International Film Festival
2006 – Best Film, EURASIA International Film Festival, Antalia
2006 – Special Mention of the Jury and CICAE Award, Sarajevo International Film Festival
2006 – Best Film - Balkan Black Box, Berlin
2006 – Special Prize of the Jury, Marrakech International Film Festival
2007 – Best Young Director, Las Palmas International Film Festival
Home

The Rest is Silence (Restul e tacere)

Romania, 2008 (140 min)
Directed by Nae Caranfil
Screenplay: Nae Caranfil
Director of Photography: Marius Panduru
Cast: Marius Florea Vizante, Ovidiu Niculescu, Mirela Zeta

It’s tough to have a famous daddy. 19 years old Grig is the son of an enormously popular Romanian actor from the early 20th century. But his own record is somewhat disappointing. Too short for the stage, too shy with women, too excessive in his lifestyle, he is about to make the ultimate mistake, unforgivable in his father’s eyes: direct a moving picture! He wants it to be the biggest, the longest, the most spectacular ever. Crazy patron of the arts Leon, the country’s most flamboyant and eccentric landowner, becomes Grig’s financier. Successively he also turns into his protector, his teacher, his substitute father, his traitorous partner and his lifelong enemy. But will Gaumont, the French company that controls the Romanian market, accept an independent production behind its back? And if so, will this victory earn Grig his father’s respect? A true story.

2007 - Official selection - Locarno International Film Festival
2007 – Official selection – Thessaloniki International Film Festival
Home

The Great Communist Bank Robbery (Marele jaf comunist)

Romania, 2004 (documentary, 85 min)
Directed by Alexandru Solomon
Screenplay: Alexandru Solomon
Director of Photography: Constantin Chelba

August 1959, in Romania, six former members of the Nomenclature and the secret police organize a hold up of the National Bank. After their arrest, the state forces them to play themselves in a film which reconstitutes the crime and the investigation. At the end of their trial, filmed live, they are sentenced to death and executed. A month later, the documentary film The Reconstitution (1960, directed by Virgil Calotescu) was released and became a sensation throughout the country.
Today, Alexandru Solomon retraces this incredible story.

2005 – Official selection, Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival
2004 – Historical Documentary Prize, Pessac
2005 – “Prize For Social Values”, Documenta, Madrid
2005 – Grand Prix, Mediawave Gyor, Hungaryead more

Home

 

Short Films II:

-A Short History (Scurta istorie)

Directed by Ion Popescu-Gopo, 1957, animation, 10 min
Ten minutes of ideas and poetry, in a funny short story full of rhythm and imagination.

1957 – Palme d’Or for Best Short Film, Cannes
Home

-The Apartment (Apartamentul)

Directed by Costantin Popescu, 2003, 15 min.
Main cast: Nicodim Ungureanu, Laura Ilica, Dana Nedelcu

It’s early in the morning. A man wakes up and gets ready for work or maybe for a short trip. His wife gets breakfast ready, then packs him a small suitcase. The man goes out of the apartment building but comes in again, through the back door. A farce with no dialogue.
2004 – Grand Prix of the Jury, International Short Film Festival, Venice
2004 – Best Debut, Transylvania International Film Festival, Cluj-Napoca
2004 – Best Short Film, Anonimul Film Festival
Home

-Humanitarian Aid (Ajutoare umanitare)

Directed by Hanno Hofer, 2002, 17 min.
Screenplay: Hanno Höfer
Director of Photography: Oleg Mutu
Main cast: Ion Fiscuteanu, Richard Bovnoczki, Cătălin Neaga, Ernesto Bianchi, Mirela Oprişor

A village in Romania. One sunny day, three young men arrive driving a van full of long-awaited humanitarian aid. The welcoming toasts begin and soon their visit turns into a series of feasts.

2002 – Canal + Award, Clermont-Ferrand
2002 – Special Mention of the Jury, Audience Award, Montpellier
2002 – Short Film Grand Prix, Cottbus
Home

-Tube with a Hat (Lampa cu caciula)

Directed by Radu Jude, 2006, 23 min.
Screenplay: Florin Lazarescu
Director of Photography: Marius Panduru
Main cast:

Seven year old Marian wants to see Bruce Lee on TV but the set doesn’t work. He and his father embark on a long and arduous journey to the city to fix their TV set.

2007 – Grand Prix of the Jury, International Short Films Section, Sundance
2006 – Grand Prix, Uppsala International Short Film Festival
Home

-C Block Story (Poveste de la scara C)

Directed by Cristian Nemescu, 2003, 12 min
Screenplay: Cristian Nemescu
Main cast: Maria Dinulescu, Lucian Ciurariu

The story of a modest family from a Bucharest neighbourhood. The son makes frequent calls to the erotic hot line, unaware that the person answering the phone is someone very close to him. He is attracted to one of his neighbours and he pictures her in various poses. A minor misunderstanding related to the elevator they both use helps smooth things along, not only for the two young people, but also for their parents.

2003 – nominated as Best Short – European Film Academy
2003 – Best Script, Novo Mesto International Film festival, Slovenia
2004 – Prix UIP Angers (European Short Film)
Home

-Traffic (Trafic)

Directed by Catalin Mitulescu, 2004, 15 min.
Stuck in traffic on his way to a business meeting, Tudor has a 20 minute break. Enough to buy a girl a cup of coffee, talk about his daughter and send her a funny picture of himself.

2004 – Palme d’Or for Best Short Film, Cannes
Home

Exam (Examen)

Romania, 2007 (80 min)
Directed by Titus Muntean
Screenplay: Titus Muntean
Director of Photography: Alexandru Solomon
Main cast: Marius Stănescu, Gheorghe Dinică, Clara Vodă, Gheorghe Visu, Coca Bloos

In 2000, two Film Academy students make video interviews with a certain Cristian Sandulescu, a 50 years old taxi driver.
Back in 1977, the young Sandulescu is arrested and accused of a gruesome murder. Released several years later when the police finds the real murdered and evidently scarred by the terrible experience which cost him his marriage and the lives of his parents, Sandulescu tries to make sense of what happened. Horrible discoveries going from a chief prosecutor who bullied witnesses into testifying and planted evidence to dictator’s Ceausescu’s orders to have the investigation wrapped up quickly slowly come into the light. Sandulescu is thus faced with a dilemma: is he entitled to revenge or not?

2004 – Best Director, Romanian Film Association
2004 – Best Leading Actor, Best Editing, Romanian Film Association
2004 – Best Leading Actor – Anonimul International Film Festival