ROMANIAN FILM NIGHTS
May – July 2018
OKNA – Espaço Cultural is presenting the first edition of Romanian Film Nights. The event shows a unique selection of recent films with the purpose of raising awareness of Romanian cinema landscape while focusing on new emerging talents. This is a non-profit initiative, bringing six productions on the course of 3 months — May to July — with screenings every two weeks. From documentary to fiction, from drama to comedy – RFN brings together Romania and Portugal into an experience of discovery, dialogue and cultural exchange.
Program:
9th of May – Cinema Mon Amour (2015)
23th of May – Acasa la Tata (2015)
6th of June – Vanatoare (2016)
20rd ofJune – Planeta Petrila (2016)
4th of July – Marita (2017)
18th of July – Lumea e a Mea (2015)
Cinema, mon amour
Director: Alexandru Belc, ROMANIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, 2015, documentary, 74’
The story of Victor Purice – manager, former projectionist and lifetime cinephile – and his two loyal employees, Cornelia and Lorena, in their everyday battle to preserve Dacia Panoramic Cinema in Piatra Neamţ. Having lived through “the golden age” of cinema, Victor 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.
Planeta Petrila
Director: Andrei Dascalescu, Romania, 2016, documentary, 80’
In Petrila, a coal mining town in Transylvania (Romania), an ex-miner turned artist and activist, using art and absurdism tries to stop local authorities from demolishing the historic buildings of the oldest coal mine in the country, closed in 2015 at EU’s recommendation. His quest is not only to preserve the history and the identity of his hometown, but also to find new ways of keeping the community from irreversibly falling apart.
Vanatoare
Director: Alexandra Balteanu, Germany, 2016, drama, 74’37”
Short moments and conversations piece together the portrait of three women’s working day. Lidia grows pigeons and lives a mundane existence with a husband and two children. Denisa, the feistier of the three, wants to buy her freeloading boyfriend a new pair of sneakers. Vanesa, the youngest, dreams of finding the perfect guy with green eyes. All three share a workplace as sexworkers under a bridge on the highway connecting Bucharest to the next city. Their relationship is strained by competition for clients and territory. In spite of their rivalry, the three women share stories about their hardships and their loves, because the threats coming from outside of their circle are much stronger than the ones within.
Back home
Director: Andrei Cohn, Romania, 2015, comedy-drama, 91’
Robert, a published poet and journalist from Bucharest, goes back home, to the village where he was born, which he hasn’t visited since his mother’s death. His relationship with his father is not a very good one, and the reconnection is not helped by the fact that the old man now lives with Iuliana. Over the next 24 hours, Robert will confront his past, in an outstanding effort to renegotiate his present. It is a war of readjustments: expectations, status and ambitions will be discussed in search of a certain existential clarity.
Marița
Director: Cristi Iftimie, Romania, 2017, drama, 100’
Getting tired with his relationship problems, Costi is suddenly in the mood for his father’s storytelling, so he decides to pay him a visit and bring him as a gift for his mother and his two brothers, although nobody longed for it.
The world is mine
Director: Nicolae Constantin Tănase, Romania, 2015, drama, 104’
Sixteen-year-old Larisa lives in a small town by the sea. Her relationship with her mother, who struggles with a lack of finances, is far from ideal, and in addition to that, the girl has to care for her helpless grandmother pretty much by herself. When Larisa falls in love with Florin, the local playboy, she acquires a powerful enemy in Anna, a girl from a wealthy family who is determined to get rid of her rival at all costs. The small-town world in which good looks and money play the leading role does not favor Larisa. However, the stubborn girl is ready to do whatever it takes to win love and admiration, and she resolutely pushes ahead to make her dreams come true….
The organisation acknowledges the support of all of its partners and supporters:
Ministerul pentru Romanii de Pretutindeni
HiFilm Production
Mandragora Production
DFFB – German Film and Television Academy Berlin
Libra Film Production
