Discoveries from Romania World Cinema

Nelu works at a pawn shop, and Ilinca is employed at a travel agency in the same busy intersection. Their daily routine includes having a quick lunch together while making various life plans.

NELU, a man in his forties, works as a security guard in the local supermarket in Salonta, a small town on the Romanian-Hungarian border. This is the place where many illegal emigrants try to cross, by any means posible, to Hungary and then further to Western Europe. One morning, NELU will “fish” something different out of the river: a Turkish man trying to cross the border. Not able to communicate verballly, the two men will somehow understand each other. NELU takes the stranger to the farmhouse, gives him some dry clothes, food and shelter. He doesn’t really know how to help this stranger. The Turkish man gives NELU all the money he has on him so he will help him cross the border. Eventually, NELU takes the money and promises he will help him cross the border tomorrow, MORGEN…

A child and his father journey from their Romanian mountain village to an airport to collect a light for their village church.

How does a mother deal with the loss of her husband? More than this, how can she accept a forced death, caused by a heart-breaking accident? 'One year after' is the story of a mother who unwillingly meets the man who killed her husband. In an attempt to express his remorse and deep feelings of guilt, the man tries to talk to the woman whose life he has marked. A movie that takes us into the mind of a mother, exploring her hidden memories and unspoken thoughts.

how many candles are in this club?

Toni Caramusat, a famous film director, is fascinated by the idea of finding the 13th fundamental truth about the Aromanians. According to a myth, this truth is held by Armanamea, the last descendant of this people. Toni goes on dates with young women from all over the world, in hope of finding both the truth and his soul mate. Will he ever find them and, if so, at what cost?

This 1957 Romanian short animation and Cannes Film Festival winner skilfully and with incredible artistic expression manages to condense the entire narrative of human evolutionary theory into a ten minute short film. Not only that, he eerily anticipates the communist triumph of the USSR launching the first man into space by a few years.

"Love Sorry" is a comedic romance where a small-town girl races her friends to meet a visiting celebrity. Laughter, friendship, and unexpected moments ensue in this charming tale of pursuing dreams and connections.

Every year Mihai carries his motorcycle in his tenth floor apartment during the winter and bring it back downstairs in spring with the help of his friends. But this year Mihai finds out how fragile friendships can become.

Dialogue between a man from Earth and an alien about the advantages and darker sides of earthly civilization.

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.

The father, in the USA, films his life on tapes for his family in Romania to watch. The mother and the child, in Romania, watch the tapes and film themselves for the father.

Vulpașin is desperatley in love with Nastasia, but she is partial to Luca, which works at a factory outside the slum they live in ("accros the lifting gate").

A boy and a girl, both teenagers, want to get away from the world and be alone for a while, so they hide in an abandoned factory on the outskirts. But there they fall in a trap of their own intention, and get stuck in the cargo elevator. There is no one around to hear them, and nobody knows their whereabouts. Tension arises after each failed attempt to escape, while they also have to deal with the fact that their entire universe is now reduced to a metal box smaller than a room.

Final entry in Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel's spiritual trilogy which includes Be My Cat: A Film for Anne and We Put the World to Sleep.

Elena, a 77-year-old woman, decides to put her son, who has an intellectual disability, in a social care centre. The decision turns out to be harder to bear than she imagined.

In the communist Romania of Nicolae Ceausescu, a young Romanian woman marries a German citizen just to leave the country.

Unripe Fruits unveils the story of a difficult mother-son relationship

An illustration of the evolution of the working conditions in the communist era, compared to the interwar period, using as a pretext a recently modernized factory in Jilava, presented in a mirror with the one described in a 1934 report by Geo Bogza.

During the communist era in Romania, the cine-clubs were very active. A documentary about resistance and passion for making film in front of insurmountable obstacles (political, social, and especially technical).

A communist prefect saves the day, saves the night, saves the building and the people. A communist prefect saves the day, saves the night, saves the building and the people.

Moldova. One winter day, Raisa travels into the city hoping to get something that could change her life.

After being brutally murdered, a teenage girl comes back as a zombie and plots a revenge on her killers.

The son of Pantalone, the honest Venetian merchant, Lelio Bisognosi, the liar, is a brilliant young man wandering the world. For twenty years he lived with an uncle in Naples, then returned to his native city with his servant Arlecchino. Here, he has the opportunity to meet Dr. Balanzoni's daughters, Rosaura and Beatrice, while, in the absence of their father, they enjoy being serenaded by an unknown admirer on the terrace of the house. The author of the serenade is Florindo, a student and tenant of the doctor, who shyly loves Rosaura, not daring to reveal his feelings. Lelio does not miss the opportunity: he introduces himself to the girls in the guise of a rich marquis and claims that he is the author of the serenade, without revealing which of the two he is in love with. But for the sake of the art of "spiritual inventions", Lelio delights in describing himself in various lies, not without undesirable consequences...

Rebel, rebel is a glimpse into the worlds of two fourteen year old girls who are seemingly unrelated, but both outsiders.

This is a comedic meta-movie about making a movie on the Romanian seaside. The movie made is about some low level black market traffickers.

Animation by Sabina Balasa.

This earliest surviving Romanian horror-thriller is distinctly un-Romanian in several ways: an adaptation of Arnold Ridley’s play of the same name (best known through its 1941 film version starring Arthur Askey), TRENUL FANTOMĂ was shot in Hungary as an alternate-language version of KÍSÉRTETEK VONATA (1933), with both films using footage taken from the 1931 British movie adaptation.

Reporter Matt Shea uncovers the truth behind notorious influencer Andrew Tate and his secretive, all-male society, the War Room. Through interviews with alleged victims, internal whistleblowers and Tate himself, this four-year-long investigation uncovers that Tate’s cult-like organisation has been grooming scores of women into online sex work through seduction, manipulation and what it sees as 'psychological conditioning.' The film also confronts the mysterious mastermind behind the organisation, who helped craft Tate into a global figurehead while remaining in the shadows - until now.

The documentary follows Doru Chirodea, the most unknown poet from Timisoara, whose activity begins in the United States, in the second half of the ‘80s, where he is known in some underground, non-academic circles, in the niche world of zines and independent literary magazines. Back in his hometown, he makes periodic book releases, published in a DIY fashion, in obscure and ephemeral bars, but with a core for a certain local bohemia, on the way to extinction. The film calmly reflects on this end of a lifestyle that already belongs to another era.

A painting animation.

A courier takes a hitchhiker on the road. When the hitchhiker warns him that the end of the world is around the corner, the courier labels him as crazy, without knowing this accidental encounter will change his life forever.

Victor, a business man from Bucharest who can’t stand anymore to see his son beat up in school, takes the boy to boxing classes. But Vlad, who’s 12 years old, is not interested in learning how to fight and refuses to enter the first training. To teach him a lesson, the father enters the boxing ring himself.

A young restaurateur, on a way of finding herself through religion, meets an older homosexual man enclosed in his pessimistic world. Through a brief encounter, both of them will wonder if their lives could have been different.

Sent on assignment to write a report on a scientist from an industrial complex, Caius, an established author, bumps into former schoolmate Cosma. Together they attend the press junket, discovering the subject of Caius’ assignment to be none other than their former university crush, Irina. The joyful reunion takes them to their old haunts, but once Cosma leaves, the remaining couple head down memory lane, spending the evening confronting each other with their conflicted shared history of love and abandonment. Between Caius’ enduring charm and Irina’s guarded independence, their romantic two-step will finally bring them requited closure.

For a sixteen year old, Radu sure knows how to get his kicks. Luckily, his mother will do everything in her power to protect him.

How does an insect feel inside your house? Did you leave your vodka bottle open from last night? Did you take your cough syrup?

In August 1944 Romania, a group of telephone operators are caught in the events in a new center placed in a forest to evade bombardment.

Country Life in the Stalinization (1951) in the middle of winter înaintede New Year, mother-in-law Maria and her daughter Saveta (Graziela Albini) awaits son or husband (George) went to the front. Unfortunately he think of his mother only begins to see visions of the past and falls in bed.

Two young guys are drinking alcohol, smoking weed and making prank calls. Little they know that their fun night is about to take a whole different turn when they get an unexpected visit from two complete strangers.

Short documentary about Nicolae Ceaușescu's decision to prematurely halt the retrofitting and repair of buildings in Bucharest after the earthquake in 1977. Based on the official transcript of the meeting that took place on the 4th of July 1977 - 4 months after the earthquake had happened.

While working on an in memoriam piece for a dead colleague, a famous news reporter loses track of the TV story and becomes part of a father-daughter relationship with the teenager left behind.

A young officer of the Romanian Army performs a sabotage mission against the Nazi regime. Seriously wounded, the officer can not reach the fixed place and finds shelter in a surgeon's home.

A young man returns to his native Romania to make a fresh start as a shepherd. Jannes Callens’ film moves at the same pace as a pasture crossing, between expedition, pause and contemplation. Striking images of this profession merge with existential considerations. How can you guide a flock when you’re a little lost yourself?

Krisztián’s old friend returns home to sell his childhood houose. For a moment, everything feels just as it used to be: the streets, the faces, the stupid jokes. For one day, they forget the weight of growing up. But eventually, the time comes to leave the nest.

A storm in the family and a storm at sea trigger radical changes in the lives of two brothers. One discovers the fantastical world of childhood, while the other struggles to keep it.

An experimental look at the making of "Katalin Varga" which has more to do with the diary films of Jonas Mekas than with a typical behind-the-scenes documentary.

Virgil, a quiet and somber man, rents an apartment overlooking a woman’s home. He watches her obsessively, waiting for the lover who will lead him to his ultimate revenge.