Discoveries from Romania World Cinema

On the night of 5th to 6th of May 1950, DGSP, the political police of the communist regime, which was recently installed with the help of the Red Army, arrested in Bucharest 69 former politicians, generals, secretaries of state, ministers and prime ministers, in an operation later called »The Night of the Dignitaries«. Due to the specificity of the NKVD modus operandi, the former officials arrested that night didn’t receive any kind of information regarding the reason of their arrest. Moreover, in the next days they were sent directly to Sighetu Marmatiei prison, without a trial.

Geared more for the home crowd with a good knowledge of their own history, this Romanian political comedy takes place at the turn of the 20th century, when two opposing factions are going at each other tooth and nail to win an election. One candidate is a staunch if not deluded conservative and the other is a radical liberal. Anticipating modern election campaigns by a good half a century, the two candidates decide that the best way to win is to sling as much mud as possible. Lacking the Internet and fifteen-second TV spots, they do the best they can -- they send each other virulent telegrams denouncing each other's personal failings.

After being stuck in Dacia in the year 85, Snow, Tea and Love must do everything possible to return to the present and escape Emperor Nerva who wants their heads. If only they had a little luck on their side...

Story of a boy that disappears and the militia officer that investigates the case.

Two collective farms compete for an irrigations specialist.

The Nazi troops are retreating from Romania. On a wester town, they have to be held back until some strategic trains can leave the train station.

In order to get a promotion, a chemical engineer (Dorel Vișan) uses the researches done by his colleague (Dan Condurache) for his doctoral thesis. But when an important damage takes place in the factory where both of them work, the first one’s incompetence comes out.

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.

After their marriage, a young couple are astonished to find their privacy invaded by strangers through an absurd order from the Housing Authority. The state institution orders the newlyweds to cede a room in their apartment to an unknown person. And the only solution to use their home as they please is... divorce. But in court battles, divorce takes on dimensions no one expected...

Alexandra and The Inferno is a 1975 Romanian film, about a young soldier during World War 2, written and directed by Iulian Mihu. The main roles were played by actors Violeta Andrei, Romeo Partenie and Nicolae Radu. The screenplay is based on the novel of the same name written by Laurențiu Fulga. In a complex social context, the film explores the protagonist's dilemmas and inner struggles, shedding light on social and personal issues that test her courage and strength to resist.

A concrete expert is torn between his family, who wants to settle in a city, and his work, which requires constant relocating.

As a football match paralyses Bucharest, Dana boards young Alex's cab. Once in front of her building, despite their obvious differences, Dana asks Alex to stay with her for the night. At any price.

Neagu's father appears unexpectedly as he and his family prepare to leave for vacation. He is having an argument with his wife, so his father, feeling unwelcome, leaves. split between his family and his father, he tries to make the best of it.

After Romania changed alliances in August 23rd, 1944, a group of soldiers have the mission to stop a military train.

“Why me?” focuses on some of the aspects of the New Romanian Cinema, using its own aesthetics. The short film describes the ridicule situation three film-makers create when all their paths to “glory” seem to be blocked. The only solution they find to their problem is an extreme one.

Andrei is the head of a political party, a member of parliament and, at the same time, a prosperous businessman. He stopped being young a good number of years ago, but his love affair with the beautiful dancer Ana gives him the feeling of a second youth. On their way back from a mountain getaway, Andrei's car causes an accident, killing one man and injuring another. The victims were all former colleagues of Ana's band, and the deceased was Ana's boyfriend. The investigation into the cause of the accident and especially the statements of the survivor incriminate Andrei.

In a Transylvanian village, a pastor tries to convert a local peasant to his religion, for personal interests.

Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism

Two different views of the execution of Romanian wartime dictator Ion Antonescu confront one another. On one side is silent footage recorded in 1946 by cameraman Ovidiu Gologan, and on the other side are scenes from a biographical film shot five decades later by director Sergiu Nicolaescu.

American professor Robert Traum embarks on an adventurous and amusing journey through Bucovina to find Sami the projectionist, the only person alive that can tell him anything about his Romanian Jewish descent. His symbolic journey is filled with danger, the unknown and the surreal, but finally rewarded with a double love: on the one hand he finds romantic love, on the other the passion for old cinema, nomad, popular, naive and generous.

At the Bucharest Circus, the new young manager is trying to solve the major financial issues of the company by selling its only bear (old and about to die soon) to German hunters. But the artists do not want to sacrifice their favorite animal so the manager decides to steal the bear and run to the mountains to meet the Germans. A crazy road movie starts following the bear.

A local Romanian chieftain in 16th century Transylvania discovers a great treasure of Decebalus. He decides to send it for safekeeping in Moldavia, but he has to evade the Transylvanian prince and the king of Hungary, who get wind of it and want it for themselves.

A teenager has problems coping in school in family. She doesn't feel she fits anywhere, but there are still some people that give her hope and strength.

A protest writer, the glory of dissidence, learns that her husband was a Securitate informer for 20 years. Press and TV make the story the headline of the day. In 24 hellish hours, the couple re-evaluate their lives to decide how and if they can go on.

Klaus Bernath, a wealthy German citizen, decides, after many years, to visit his birthplace, of the Banat Swabian village Lindenfeld, in Romania. Since the village has been deserted for many decades, his son and his biographer decide to reconstruct the whole space from scratch and present it as a populated place.

Menti is miraculously revived after his suicide attempt and tries to make sense of the events following Charlie Charlison's murder. However things aren't like he originally thought as a new player reveals himself in the plot.

A poetic journey through the fantasy short stories of Mircea Eliade.

At an old age, prince Andrei Morudzi retreats to his castle in Romania, during the two world wars, after having lead an eventful youth. There he is seen upon as a rare bird by the local folk, due to his strange attitude towards life and his exquisit manners, which don't fit in the way of life of the villagers. But, in the end, despite trying to distance himself from the local people, he can't but influence their humble existences.

The Romanian Ministry of State Security has learned that foreign intelligence is hunting for plans for blue mines, where strategic raw materials are mined. This task is carried out by a gang led by a spy named Sea Cat.

Adapted from the play "The Fifth Swan" by Paul Everac, the movie depicts the love story between Dufy, a talented ballerina but cast as an extra, and Mirea, an engineer at the height of his career. The love story between the two proves impossible because of social conventions.

A young journalist interviews a man who was a torturer during the early days of the communist regime in Romania.

Tired of waiting for love to happen to her, Clara decides to make it happen. She chooses Vlad for her love project. But she wants The One; he wants anyone. She wants a prince, and he is only a man.

Ivan Semciuc (a journalist), is a charismatic man nonetheless guilty of cynicism and lack of compassion. A seemingly meaningless sexual encounter with a translator in a hotel room in Kabul produces a vital revolution in Ivan’s unshakeable lifestyle. After Ivan’s arrival back to Bucharest, Ioana is found dead, with her wrists cut. Ivan starts living in the absent presence of Ioana, who is starting to be more vivid in death than in life.

Wonderfully surreal, painfully real, this is the story of children, adults and animals who live together trying to have a better life, but sometimes death comes unexpectedly. The lives of three characters surrounded by a bunch of extraordinary, funny, absurd but quite realistic events. It is all about us, people who eat the animals that they love and the animals that love people unconditionally.

At a party, the class valedictorian gravely injures a passer by with some saucers thrown through the window. Characters are tested by what follows.

A nonconformist engineer challenges some stereotypical negative communist characters.

This film is about the relationship of a mother and her daughter, the split-up of their family, the blessing and curse of belonging together and about coming of age - all this from the perspective of the young girl Aglaja. The story is based on real-life events, an Eastern European circus artist family that fled to the West. If they want to stay in the circus business they have to make up an exotic act. The mother spends all their money to buy a very dangerous act: hanging by her hair high up in the dome of the circus while juggling with burning torches. Every night Aglaja is terrified by the fear of losing her mother. But, on some day, she has to follow the family tradition and become the "Woman with the Hair of Steel".

A subtile, soft exploration of the relation between love and death.

Two couples, very close friends, wonderful doctors and architects, people who make decisions for others in decisive problems on a daily basis, live a life of prosperity, and everything seems to feel like a paradise to them. The normal coexists with the pathological. Someone wants more. Passion ravages. Sometimes the road to crime is very simple, just a step. Almost inexplicable to many. A clear view of a world, an above average class, with a seemingly successful and happy existence.

The story of the rescue of workers trapped in a snow avalanche in a remote mountain cabin.

Ruxandra, a young woman just out of school, decides to become an actress, convinced that personal charm can keep instead of talent.

The Romanian penitentiary system allows, from 2006, the marriage of people sentenced to serve time in prison. Most of the inmates cultivate the pre-existing relationships with the concubines or partners who live outside the prison walls. Though, there is a special category, of those who find a life partner during their time in prison. VISITING ROOM follows the stories of some prisoners found in different penitentiaries across the country, who have found their life partner during their sentence time. The one is either a person from outside, or as them, a person who is serving time in prison. Our intention was to talk to the people found in the special situation of being deprived of freedom, to whom love becomes a substitute for freedom and represents maybe their only hope for a better future.

Two teenagers who have just met break into their school after class only to discover chilling secrets embedded within its walls—including one boy’s connection to the death of a teacher.

The woman in red is Ana Cumpanas, a Romanian emigrated to the US, which facilitates the killing of her lover, the famous gangster John Dillinger in Chicago. After an adventurous life, the woman returns to die in her homeland.

Lișcă is a woman who awaits the return of her husband from war, only he is long overdue. Many callers come, yet she holds on to the hope her husband will return.

Zoe finally met someone (Duncan) that she really cares about enough to introduce to her friends. Everybody seems to be excited for her and they’re trying their best to make Duncan feel at home, but Zoe has a secret. Her mood transforms the evening into the perfect opportunity for scandal and all the characters will get the chance to express how they really feel

Summer 1913, in a village near Buzăul. Ionica, the schoolteacher's son, witnesses the hard life of the poor villagers. The war is coming and his landless neighbors have to work 16 hours a day at the oil wells for miserable wages. Is there hope for them?

A certain village nobleman Amédée dies, leaving a substantial legacy, but there is a matrimonial clause. The first of two men (who do not know each other) who will marry will receive the inheritance of one million.

Following a competitive circumstances, Russian Federation returned the Romanian state treasury found in Moscow. Among the items brought into the country is also a bust of the early twentieth century (porcelain bust made ​​in 1915, signed I. Andropov) that is not in inventory; experts consider it a "regular kitch". The bust was stored at the Museum of Art in Bucharest.

Erika is running from her family, her past and herself. Her only friend is the old man she cleans for. The girl from the shop looks up to her. Her lover is a married man. Consequences of past choices and trauma are revealed as she searches for safety and love living day by day.

Ship "Saturn" prepares to return home from the American west coast. The ship is damaged at a very bad time, when a severe storm comes their way, they loose propulsion. The currents are pulling them towards a rocky island and they must try the impossible to save themselves.

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.

The film is submerging in the world of YouTube and internet amateur-made-films posting through the eyes of Bahoi, one of Romania's most viewed filmmakers. The first part of the movie deeply analysis his films by going to his hometown village in Romania, Peninsula, and meeting Bahoi's most famous characters. Also through Bahoi's own words we are trying to find out why is he filming so much brilliant material, why is he posting it on the internet and how he took this passion with him to the West. In the second part we are traveling along with Bahoi throughout Europe to discover more talented people and make some sense of this huge boom in filmmaking.

At the height of the Algerian war, Sergeant Dallers discovers Lagrange in his patrol, a boy with learning disabilities enlisted by mistake. The discharge papers are delayed and Lagrange, seeking desperately to be accepted, suffers the humiliations inflicted by the other soldiers. Moved, Dallers soon takes him under his wing.

Five young high school graduates are preparing for college admissions in one of the largest and most important university centers, Cluj. Once they become students, the lives of the five change, and the results will be commensurate with the work of each.

Procreation is the social duty of all fertile women, was the political thinking during the 1960s and 1970s in Romania. In 1966, Ceaucescu issued Decree 770, in which he forbade abortion for all women unless they were over forty or were already taking care of four children. All forms of contraception were totally banned. The New Romanian Man was born. By 1969, the country had a million babies more than the previous average. Romanian society was rapidly changing. By using very interesting archival footage and excerpts from old fiction films and by interviewing famous personalities from that time – gynecologists or mothers who were part of the new society - the director revives this period of tremendous oppression of personal freedom. Many deaths were caused by the mere fact that women, including wives of secret Romanian agents, famous TV presenters, and actresses, had to undergo illegal abortions. Many women were jailed for having them.

A Romanian village in the 50s. Năiţă Lucean, a cunning and stubborn peasant, opposes the collectivization process using all possible artifice. He instinctively feels that signing his land and cattle over to the state can only bring bad times for him. His only certainty is the ownership of this insufficient and barren plot of land. Although he strongly opposes it, the idea of the collective good is forcibly enforced.

Over at the fictional DRGBP institution, events take a settling turn after a mutinied prize festivity.