Discoveries from Romania World Cinema

In a remote village, two mobsters in a samurai-inspired clan hide a secret affair involving katana fantasies. When discovered, they must duel to decide who stays in the clan.

Animated advertisement for "Margareta", the make-up collection produced by Mirage Enterprise.

An anthology made up of numerous short films featuring Gopo's Little Man.

Love and devotion are different. You can't tell if it's love or not if you avoid saying things to the loved ones. If those things might hurt them, and there is nothing to to to change them, maybe it's love not to say it.

A group of teenagers try ecstasy for the first time, but their lack of experience with the drug turns everything into a chain reaction of horrible trips.

Two people who seem absolutely typical meet, befriend and find themselves in their similarities... Or at least their legs do.

A love story between a worker and an architecture student from a well to do family that has to overcome prejudice.

Puiul is a short animated art Romanian movie without dialogue.

Truck driver Papa (Sebastian Papaiani) carrying food for a large construction site canteen, falls in love with two girls.

Ana Blandiana, one of Europe’s most important poets, is a symbol in the fight for democracy and freedom of speech, values again under threat. A history refracted through poetry, 'Between Silence and Sin' explores the power of the word as the last bastion of a nation’s collective soul in the face of oppression.

One stressful morning, like every other morning, Cristina suddenly stops in the doorway. She is unable to take the step that would lead her out of the house.

Voivode Michael the Brave travels through time, together with his wife, discovering, deeply touched, the new world.

A study of the underground music scene in the former Eastern Bloc city of Timisoara, Romania, in the first decade following the fall of the Communist regime.

Set in the atmosphere of 16th-century Venice, the film recreates, in a modern spirit, the characteristic elements of commedia dell’arte: rhythm, verve, spontaneity, disguises, and comic situations. The traditional characters of this theatrical genre delight audiences with their humor, brought to life by some of the most exceptional names in Romanian comedy.

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.

The director's grandparents are reminiscing on moments from their marriage. Film was meant to be part of a video installation.

Mihai Bobonete shares hilarious tales from the pandemic period, family holiday chaos and much more in his signature storytelling style.

The life of human beings, seen from birth to old age. Only that this generic life is not represented with humans, but with the artefacts that we the humans have created for our children (or should we say ‘cubs’?), in order to prepare them for life: the toys. So, the film is a collage of scenes in which the toys help us understand better a possible essence of our life.

While people in Western Europe were used to choose between hundreds of brands, the communist Romanian used to have a different experience: all our life we lived with only one brand for each basic product. Imagine the importance that this 'mono-brands' could acquire for the lives of those who made them and for the lives of those who consumed them. A love story between man and object.

A documentary about the early life of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Alba Iulia, Áron Márton.

A glimpse at the daily lives of patients in a Romanian psychiatric hospital.

Raluca, 26, freshly returned from Berlin to a spring-warm Bucharest hit by the pandemic, works as a home-deliverer for supermarket products. One day one of her clients turns out to be a young guy with a good sense of humor and a cute cat, so when Raluca’s bike ride through a nightmarish traffic in Bucharest and guys grabbing her on every street corner, she becomes slightly idyllic bearing the hope of a new love story. Encouraged by her girlfriends, Raluca finds a pretext to invite herself into the guy’s house, but the imagination is almost always more interesting than reality.

A young couple sets out to conceive a child who will be the first born in the new millennium, which would bring them a substantial prize.

A vulnerable boy works very hard to escape from a stark reality. He surrounds himself by a world of toys and games but as the truth starts to emerge his refuge might turn out to be a trap.

A oil and gas engineer applies a new extraction technology. When something goes wrong, almost everybody are quick to assign blame.

A university lectop finds himself embroiled in a nasty blackmail case. Powerful businessman Busoni is preparing a stab at the grain market. This Protar scam should enrich him, but an article by a university professor changes his plans.

Several men from different backgrounds and professions prepare, silently and separately, for a mysterious meeting, which will take place high up on a tall building, like in American police thrillers. Their relationship is not clear, nor why they end up dueling spectacularly through the (seemingly) interwar Bucharest, but the engagement is as serious as can be.

Two railroad men are living in a lineman's cabin. One night a stranger has an accident on the beach nearby that will change everything.

Have you ever considered that talking to a complete stranger could open your eyes and make you abandon everything that gave meaning to your life? A wandering philosopher, a guru or just a charlatan? This is the story of Cezar Mititelu, a man who decided to find true freedom for himself and realized, along the way, that he needs to change the others. A group of young people tried to escape the conformism and the constraints of an authoritarian society and found themselves castaway in irrelevance at the edges of history.

This movie is a screen adaptation of the eponymous play by Horia Lovinescu. It follows a "bourgeois" family as it copes with the emerging communist regime. Different members of the family take different paths.

A public service announcement condemning the ominous obstacle of social parasitism and delinquency amongst wayward youth unwilling to contribute to Romania’s socialist advancement.

Based on the 1933 homonymous play by Tudor Mușatescu. An interwar satire, the film follows Decebal Necșulescu, son of Spirache Necșulescu from “Titanic Vals”, as he relentlessly pursues political office in Bucharest.

A glimpse into the life of a middle-aged orthodox priest who struggles with his misdemeaning son.

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.

A sci-fi fairy tale love story adventure about a young boy, who lands in a UFO, and the princess he falls in love with as an adult.

A girl dreams of a boy who works night shifts at the flower greenhouses where she works during the day. Her mother worries that she is being possessed.

Awaiting her husband’s visit from abroad, a woman is having a nervous breakdown as her mother finds out she hasn’t yet made up her mind about the divorce.

The story of three generations of the Dorobantsu peasant family, who fought bravely and selflessly against the oppressors of their homeland. The viewer sees the people who took an active part in the peasant uprisings of 1907 and their descendants who won the war against fascism.

Bearing the signature melancholy, affection, and absurdist irony of associative form that would define his filmography, Copel Moscu’s debut is a loving portrait of miners and their arduous, sun-deprived existence.

Waiting for the rain that never comes, two peasants, father and son, plough the dry land with a horse-drawn plough. The father decides to dig a well, for which he will pay a heavy price.

1971 Animation by Sabin Balasa

A cinematic analysis of a photo album made by a Romanian Army unit in WW2.

Maia and David are living together, but their relationship has recently ended. They now have to figure out the final details before David moves out, as well as split the investments made towards their home. Daniel Popa’s debut offers an honest look at the more pragmatic side of a breakup.

1957, communist Romania. Sasa talks about his 45 year long relationship with Petre, in a time when homosexuality was criminalized.

A diary of a journey through space and time, composed of subjective impressions of the present and childhood memories of the past. While traveling across Romania in the year of its EU accession, the narrative reflects on transition, the re-writing of history and the relation between images and memory.

Based on the novel "The Artist" by Francisca Munteanu. Romania in the 30s. A young talented artist Mihai Strihan, a student at the Academy of Painting, sees how fascism is poisoning the social life of the country. But Mihai does not want to get involved in politics and decides to engage only in painting. However, under the influence of friends fighting for the freedom of their homeland, Mihai realizes that he was wrong and becomes involved in a fierce political struggle against fascism.

Booze, grief and guilt arouse repressed emotions in Eli. Momentarily she loses control, however ultimately she will have to let go of the past. Layered, penetrating portrait of family ties, guilt and the role of traditions.

Used to move along with the construction projects they were working for, a group of people decide that is time to settle.

A young woman, Ioana, appears in a commercial for adolescents and her family is scandalized because of the erotic content. She leaves home and tries to take life on her own. Ioana realizes that she has become a small celebrity, with the status and benefits, but placed in inconvenient situations.