Doru is a Romanian soldier on his first mission to Afghanistan. Laila is an Afghan girl. They've met for a brief second and from that moment their destinies became intertwined. This film, finding itself on the border between documentary and fiction, tells the stories of a soldier marked by the brutality of war and that of a young girl who had been in the wrong place, in the wrong time. The director combines archival footage from the war in Afghanistan with beautifully shot personal images, in a film about the cruelty of war, from the perspective of both the invaders and of the civilians trapped within.
In this prequel, we follow the emotional downfall of Dragoș, a young boy navigating the tumultuous emotions brought on by his parents' divorce. As he grapples with his ever growing feelings of anger, sadness and loneliness, Dragoș will soon come face to face with a "being" that will put his faith to the test. This short film delves into the depths of a child's heart and mind, exploring how faith, whether weak or strong, still can't pull him from the darkness.
Inspired by Derek Jarman’s Section 28 installation, the film compares stories from a recent history of the Romanian queer community with current personal experiences, linking them to lyrical observations about a still hidden present.
"My Socialist Home" is a documentary film exploring the significance of gender in the constitution of domestic space in the socialist and postsocialist state.
A combination of 'found footage' and 'mockumentary', Bodrog is a delirium, a visual labyrinth about sacrifices, forgotten legends revived with a shot of brandy and mythological creatures from the depths of Mureș.
Romania's winning streak at festivals continues, but the most unusual and ambiguous one still lurks in mysterious darkness. The undeservedly underrated Gabriel de Achim challenged the widely renowned Cristi Puiu (“The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”) to make a film using all the things, which the established Romanian master most detests in cinema. He constructed a non-linear story with wickedly tangled flash backs and flash forwards and set the same actors to perform different and multi-faceted roles.
The film follows the life and work of Romanian visual artist ION GRIGORESCU, one of the pioneers of experimental art in Europe. The film discusses our evanescent existence, morality, and spirituality and interrogates the possible extent of the inglorious recollection of our own biography.
Most experiences are unsayable; they happen in a space that no word has ever entered. And still, there are words that connect people over time and shape their lives into having an inextricable link. The journey of three men, part dance into the unknown, part quest for meaning.
In "Spaces #2", 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home, making their own timely comment on the new reality that we live in. The project is inspired by the book "Species of Spaces" by the French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist, Georges Perec and the days of quarantine. The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell. "A Fable" is Radu Jude's submission.
Ionaș lives in an isolated village in Maramureș, from where the road leads only into the forest. Every year, from July until the beginning of October, Ionaș spends his nights guarding, on his own, his cornfield of wild boars that threatens to eat his agony.
Would you rather have water or milk? See the world in blue or pink? Keep the film going or finish it? Individuals accept the game proposed by the director and make their choices in front of the camera. With this film, Laura Marques questions her role as filmmaker. Perhaps cinema is just a children’s game?
Somewhere next to the citadel walls, a flower selling gypsy, probably a witch, has an apocalyptic vision: In a very short time, tens of thousand of gypsies from Hungary and Romania will be killed or deported. She decides to use her powers to help them.
To follow in his father’s and older brother’s footsteps, Mihai, a seventeen-year-old Romanian, gets ready for a mission that he must go to France to finish. During the last night with his family, little by little, he is overcome with doubt and fear.
For three days in June 1990, the famed Paris attic of Emil Cioran (1911-1995) was transformed into a film studio under the supervision of filmmaker Sorin Ilieşiu, creating an engrossing portrait of the philosopher and essayist.
Ioan Colţea, who is turning 91, lives in a quiet village in the mountains. Surrounded by his extended family, always serene and detached, he is now looking at his kids, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, with kindness, warmth and resignation in his eyes. The family gets together for an entire week not only to celebrate grandpa, but also to agree on building him a new grave and cross, all under Ioan Colţea’s strict observation.
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