Discoveries from Romania World Cinema

A continuation of a story started in the drama "With Clean Hands" (1972). Commissioner Miclovan's last cartridge is still hot in the pocket of Roman. Left without Miclovan's support, dead in action, Commissioner Roman wants to see his murderer, a very powerful local mafia and smuggler, Mr. Semaca, acquitted by the court for lack of evidence, punished. But before dealing with Semaca, Roman receives a new mission, this time undercover: the capture of a German spy still active in the country, suspected to be hiding in a monastery. In this mission, Commissioner Roman also has a helper, Oarca, a former underwriter who proves good at everything and especially at car chases on serpentine...

Sergio travels to a metropolis in West Africa to work for an NGO as an environmental engineer on a road project between the desert and the forest. There, he becomes entangled in an intimate yet unbalanced relationship with two inhabitants of the city, Diara and Gui. As neo-colonial dynamics among the expatriate community unravel, this fragile bond becomes his only refuge from an impending collapse into solitude or barbarism.

As his wife returns to work after maternity leave, former lawyer Iustin finds solo parenting — and dealing with meddling in-laws — his toughest case yet.

While working in the US on a temporary visa as a caretaker, Mara, a 30 year-old single mother from Romania, marries Daniel, an American. After the arrival of her son Dragos, everything seems to have fallen perfectly into place. When the process of getting a green card veers unexpectedly off course, however, Mara is faced with abuses of power on every level and forced to answer a dark question about herself – how far would you go to get what you want?

Laura (45) suffers from severe amnesia following an accident, so she can’t remember who the people around her are. She is reluctantly persuaded by her family to go on a boat trip to Turkey, but the closer she gets to her destination, the more unclear the purpose of the trip becomes. They are caught up in a series of situations in which they change their minds depending on the context, their own principles seem to be relativized, their choices become irrational.

Didi, a Hungarian noblewoman who survived war and communism, has lived in Salento for years, cared for by Vita, a young woman from Puglia. She spends her final days amidst memories, guilt, and friendship, searching for peace.

Lucia has everything a woman could want. A loving husband and son. The opportunity to devote herself entirely to her family. A lifelong friendship with Cristina, which began during their university days. Yet, amid the intoxicating idyllic summer holiday, Lucia can feel nothing but longing for the person she once was. Lucia and Cristina, accompanied by their husbands, spend the summer in a small beach village whose charm has faded over time. Behind a façade of peace and security, Lucia finds herself drawn to everything that is not handed to her on a silver platter. An unattainable man from her past emerges in their holiday group, giving her a reason to hunt. Because life should not be without a bite.

He threw their loved ones into a swamp. Now they want revenge... But when a demon does their dirty work, it comes at a price.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire in a Romanian club, burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening. A team of investigative journalists move into action uncovering the mass corruption of the health system and of the state institutions. Collective follows journalists, whistle blowers, and authorities alike. An immersive and uncompromising look into a dysfunctional system, exposing corruption, propaganda, and manipulation that nowadays affect not only Romania, but societies around the world.

A young novice sneaks out of her convent to deal with a matter that cannot be delayed.

Alina returns to Romania from Germany, hoping to bring Voichita—the only person in the world she loves and was loved by—back with her. But Voichita has found God, and God is the hardest lover of all to best.

A dramatic retelling of the life of Michel de Nostredame, from his early work as a plague doctor to his time at the court of Catherine de Medici, after he became famed for his prophetic almanacs. Stars Rutger Hauer and Julia Ormond.

The three-hour-long documentary covers 25 years in the life of Nicolae Ceaușescu and was made using 1,000 hours of original footage from the National Archives of Romania.

After suffering terrible headaches and stomach cramps, Mr. Lăzărescu, a lonely 63 year-old man, calls for an ambulance, beginning one man’s hellish journey through Bucharest hospitals in search of proper medical care. As the night unfolds, his health starts to deteriorate fast.

Unable to accept that his glory days are long gone, the "king of the violin" Caliu has to reinvent himself. Swinging between the challenges of the present and the memories of his international career, for Caliu only the music has remained the same.

The New Year That Never Came is a tragicomedy whose action takes place in a single day, before the revolution of 1989, in which the characters search for normality, safety, love, freedom and meaning in an absurd world.

For the terminally ill Izzet, time is nearly up. Doctors have given up, prayers and rituals offer little help, and his family's future is now in God's hands. So Izzet spends his time in virtual reality, roaming through the astonishing and otherworldly places of the virtual cosmos. He even meets his girlfriend there…

In a small village of Communist-era Romania a young couple wish to marry, but Joseph Stalin dies the night prior to their wedding ceremony forcing the bride and groom to marry in silence.

Follows the story of Viktor Purice - manager, former projectionist and lifetime cinephile and his two loyal employees, Cornelia & Lorena, in their everyday battle to preserve Dacia Panoramic Cinema in Piatra Neamt - one of the last remaining cinemas in Romania today. Having lived through "the golden age" of cinema, Viktor dreams of bringing back the good old glory days, yet struggles to keep up with the new harsh reality. In a theater that lacks heating and is slowly falling apart, with no support from the State who owns the place, it’s almost a Don Quixote fight.

Four teens sell SAT subjects online to fund their dreams: college, studio, dad's approval and adventure. Their scheme runs smoothly until reality and consequences catch up with them.

36-year-old Stela has higher education but unable to keep a job. Since she was 12, she's been in love with a Serbian musician from the former Yugoslavia. One of the musician's alleged mistresses promises Stela that she will help her meet her idol.

Miami Bici is the story of Ion and Ilie, two young people from a small dark city in Romania who go to Miami in the middle of winter, to live both the "American Dream" and the Romanian dream of "getting rich quick". Once there, they find themselves in the middle of the Machiavellian plan of Mișu, a Romanian of the lowest species, established in Florida.

The great King of Dacia, Decebal (Decebalus), is disposed to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to keep the integrity of his people. His own son, Cotyso, is given to the god Zamolxis to the dismay of the King and his daughter Meda. Septimius Severus, a young Roman devoted to his adopted country, must make the choice between his blood origins and the culture he was introduced to.

During the summer of 1937, Emanuel, a young man in his early twenties, is committed to a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast for treatment of his bone tuberculosis. The treatment consists of painful spine punctures that confine him to a plaster on a stretcher-bed. Little by little, as Emanuel gets accustomed to the sadness of his new life, he discovers that inside the sanatorium there is still a life to be lived to the fullest.

The life of Primo Carnera a.k.a. "Ambling Alp", Italian professional boxer and the World Heavyweight Champion from June 1933 to June 1934, but also accused by some of having ties to the mob.

Cristina and Tudor have founded a happy family with their two children, Maria and Ilie. They are in their thirties and live an ordinary life in a nice apartment in a Romanian town, but one Sunday morning when Tudor takes his kids to the park, Maria disappears. Their lives abruptly change forever.

This is the story of the lovely Kate Swallow and the loves of her life. At the start she is with Alec Bolton, a noted author, who discourages her when she wants to write a novel. Later she is swept off her feet by Alecs publisher, Vanni Corso, and leaves Alec for Vanni. She writes another novel and Vanni tells her he doesn't think the book will sell. Both of their actions are an indication of their vanity and fear of losing her.

Devastated by the First World War and plunged into political controversy, Romania's every hope accompanies its Queen on her mission to Paris, to lobby for its great unification's international recognition at the 1919 Peace Talks.

Paul Hanganu loves two women. Adriana his wife and the mother of their daughter, the woman with whom he's shared the thrills of the past ten years, and Raluca the woman who has made him redefine himself. He has to leave one of them before Christmas.

Ilie, a small-town police chief, wants to build a modest comfortable life for himself, but ends up making the wrong choices. Middle-aged and alienated, he feels the need to be a part of something - to build an orchard, even a home. Although dubious things happen in the village, Ilie only sees what suits him. The moment he gets involved in the village marks the beginning of his collapse. In a vacuum of solutions, he tries to be what he has never been before: the justice seeker who arrests everyone guilty.

Box is a story of two people who meet at a crossroad. Two different destinies, two different lives, face to face in a game of sweat, blood and tears. Rafael (19) is a young boxer who dreams to conquer the world; Cristina (33) is a single mother who lost her balance. Two lives; one running very close to the earth, the other trying to fly high up, too high.

Six people find themselves inexplicably transported to a remote cabin that is surrounded by an invisible barrier. In a nearby graveyard, they discover an ancient, carved stone monument that they dub a "totem pole." Soon, they find themselves trapped in a murderous plot by malevolent forces that can control and manipulate their actions with the ultimate goal being to unleash three demonic entities from the monument.

A young Romanian gendarme, Cristi, tries to find the balance between two apparently opposing parts of his identity: that of a man working in a macho hierarchical environment and that of a closeted gay person who tries to keep his personal life a secret. Cristi is called in for an intervention at a movie theatre, where an ultra-nationalist, homophobic group has interrupted the screening of a queer film. After one of the protesters threatens to out him, Cristi spirals out of control.

Adi, a gay teenager, is spending the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta. One night he is brutally attacked on the street, the next day his world is turned upside-down. His parents no longer look at him as they did, and the seeming tranquility of the village starts to crack.

"I do not care if we go down in history as barbarians." These words, spoken in the Council of Ministers of the summer of 1941, started the ethnic cleansing on the Eastern Front. The film attempts to comment on this statement.

Composed of six unconventional vignettes, each one dealing with the late communist period in Romania, a narrative is told through its urban myths from the perspective of ordinary people. The title refers to the alluded "Golden Age" of the last 15 years of Ceaușescu's regime.

A humble Romanian actor in his 40's, hardly surviving between a complicated part in a musical, a depressed wife, and the obsession of an imminent, devastating earthquake, becomes the victim of his manipulative father.

A theatre director intends to make a revolutionary version of Hamlet. It all starts with finding the right actors and putting their lives in danger.

Three friends set out to find partners so they won’t have to go alone to their 10‑year high school reunion. Along the way, they meet a man with traditionalist views, and the story turns into a difficult confrontation between feminism and misogyny. In a world where a simple online comment can change destinies, the two sides fight without either emerging victorious.

The next season of Buzz House is the most ambitious yet. Selly has prepared many surprises for the participants: secret competitors, an isolated villa in the forest that can only be reached by boat and a costumed employee, set to scare them, to have a thrilling exit. Everything is planned in detail. What's not in the plan, though, is for a real psychopath to show up, kill the "scary" employee, take his costume and terrorize our competitors for real. Do rivalries still matter when you're being run over with an axe? Do friendships still matter when you have to risk your life for them? Who will manage to escape and how?

Love. It just happens. No rules. It may look sick, but it's deep and it hurts. For everyone, Alex and Kiki are just good friends. They happen to be two girls experiencing another kind of love. For their family, Kiki and Sandu are sister and brother who sometimes fight. They happen to be lovers. Love Sick is about their stories.

Secluded from the world, a single mother of three must defend what's left of her family from a cold-blooded killer, at all costs.

After losing her job as a computer programmer, Lucía decides to become a cab driver.

Akam, a young literature teacher, lives a comfortable life in Oslo until his estranged uncle from the Iranian part of Kurdistan comes for a surprise visit. Despite limited space in his shared flat with friends, Akam feels obligated to invite his uncle to stay for a few days. However, his uncle quickly makes himself at home and shows no sign of leaving anytime soon. Torn between his sense of familial duty and growing tension in the flat, Akam begins to suspect there's more to his uncle's visit than just a casual trip. What follows is a series of revelations and unexpected events that could have life changing consequences for them both.

In 1911-12, the Romanian movie director Grigore Brezianu and the financial tycoon Leon Popescu made together the 2 hours long movie "Romania's Independence" - an as faithful as possible screen adaptation of the real Independence War that had been fought in 1877. Now, "Restul e tacere" tells us, in a loose and half-fictionalized way, the story of this movie making.

A description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become like her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucharest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing at everything.

Ana, a city girl, raised in comfort, has managed to upset her father. In order to learn some humility and appreciate life in its simplicity, Ana is "exiled" to the countryside, to live with her grandmother for a while. For Ana, life in the village is a nightmare: heels sink into the mud, internet not so much, and people are strange.

Costi is a family man whose cash-strapped neighbor makes him an intriguing proposition: help him find the fortune reportedly buried somewhere on the grounds of his family’s country home in Romania and split the profits.

Near by Christmas, in an old and charming town in Transylvania, Sebastian and Aprilia start a beautiful love story. However, nothing is as simple as it would seem. Being influenced by three men with strong personalities, Aprilia needs to find the balance between adulthood and the choices of a young girl's heart. It's Christmas time and life holds for this talented beautiful girl only the presents that she is strong enough to grab.

Bucharest, 1972. Ana, 17, dreams of love and freedom. One night, while partying with her friends, they decide to send a letter to Metronom, the musical program which Radio Free Europe broadcasts clandestinely in Romania. It is then that the Securitate, Ceausescu’s secret police, arrives…

Lavinia, a single mother trying to make a better life on her own terms for herself and her 13-year-old son, live in a poor Romanian village. She is impulsive, prone to misreading situations, and not sure how to love. But her son, on the threshold between childhood and adolescence, needs his mother more than ever, and over the course of four seasons their relationship is put to the test.

It's the 22nd of December. Sixteen years have passed since the revolution, and in a small town Christmas is about to come. Piscoci, an old retired man is preparing for another Christmas alone. Manescu, the history teacher, tries to keep up with his debts. Jderescu, the owner of a local television post, seems not to be so interested in the upcoming holidays. For him, the time to face history has come. Along with Manescu and Piscoci, he is trying to answer for himself a question which for 16 years has not had an answer: "Was it or wasn't it a revolution in their town?"

Untamed Romania provides insight into the stunning natural wonders of Romania, with the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube Delta, and Transylvania as its major areas of interest.

1972 was a turning point in Ilie Nastase's career: he won his first US Open, while also reaching both Wimbledon and Davis Cup finals. Moving back and forth in time and featuring amazing archive footage and exclusive interviews with top athletes, the documentary explores Nastase's highs and lows, the controversies that surrounded him and the enduring impact he has had on the world of tennis. Lovable, charming and generous, yet temperamental, arrogant and obscene, Mr. Nice'n'Nasty disrupted the old-fashioned etiquette of the sport in the 70s thus becoming its first rebel rock star.

Mitu and Elena get to know each other in the course of a vodka drinking contest and discover that they are both dissatisfied with the status quo. Mitu is about to begin military service and Elena is to be married to a man she does not love. They decide they are meant for each other and plan on a different future, one that is on a collision course with the authorities, and start a mad affair.

Among the guests who come to the mansion of aristocratic landowner Nikolai over Christmas are a politician, a young countess, and a general with his wife. They dine and discuss topics such as progress and morality. As the debate becomes more heated, cultural differences become increasingly apparent.

Bucharest 1989 - the last year of Ceausecu's dictatorship. Eva lives with her parents and her 7 year old brother, Lalalilu. One day at school, Eva and her boyfriend accidentally break a bust of Ceausescu. They are forced to confess their crime before a disciplinary committee and Eva is expelled from school and transferred to a reformatory establishment. There she meets Andrei, and decides to escape Romania with him. Lalalilu becomes convinced that Ceausescu is the main reason for Eva's decision to leave. So with his friends from school he devises a plan to kill the dictator.

Michael works as a hospital janitor and he lives with his wife Ester, who has fallen into depression after the death of their son. Michael is willing to do anything he can to save Ester, even things that no sane mind would ever dream of.

Based on the story of the same name by Marin Preda. The movie tells about the struggle of poor peasants against the rural rich for the creation of collective farming.

Back from a professional trip to Paris, a neurologist at the pinnacle of his career has to pick up his wife so that they can attend a family meal to commemorate his father, who died a year before. At his mother's flat, the guests are waiting for the priest to arrive while arguing about all kinds of things connected and unconnected with the world’s events and wars.