Festivals        18th Transilvania International Film Festival – 2019

A cinematic AperiTIFF and not only – Screening in the rain

To reach the city Kluj-Napoca in northern Romania from Thessaloniki is an adventure itself.
Night bus trip Thessaloniki-Athens to catch the - only affordable and rare - early morning flight to Kluj to catch some of the screenings. The return trip is even worse: Kluj-Bucharest-Athens (overnight) and on to Thessaloniki. But the ‘package’ was absolutely compensated by the virtues of the festival itself and also… by less rain this year. Knowing fully the organisation of a festival – having participating in one – I was amazed again with the efficient preparation of the whole program. Personalized contacts, before and during, meticulous listing of the screenings, theater layout and, of course, well informed staff and volunteers, always handy to help. The best part is always meeting with familiar faces and smiles. My main goal was to see closer the Romanian film trends in the framework of Balkan evolution. It was deeply rewarding in this respect.
-Tudor Giurgiu was again the president of the festival and the popular Mihai Chirilov artistic director. The programme, with 202 screened films in 10 theaters and in open-air, had everything: Competition, Romanian Days, Unirii Square screenings, Supernova films, Michel Gondry, Keeping the Faith (Fipresci), Shadows, No Limit, 3X3, Documentaries, Hungarian Days, Usual Suspects, HBO Day, Educatiff.
This year’s Focus was on China, France, and Albania. Special Guests were honored with trophies and special screenings for their life-time contribution to cinema art. 1) Nicolas Cage, American (films Face/Off , by John Woo and Mandy by Panos Kosmatos), 2) Oana Paunescu, Romanian renown costume designer for most of the unforgettable films (film What happened to Monday, by Tommy Wirkola) and 3) Marcel Lures, Romanian (screening of late Lucien Pintilie’s Unforgettable Summer). -Tributes (3 films each) were bestowed to Agnes Varda (with 21 filmographies), Fatih Akin and Veit Velmer.

Juries. For the Competition: Anita Juca, Constantin Popescu, Denis Cote, Mike Goodbridge, and Grainne Humpreys.
For FIPRESCI: Ayca Ciftci, Marta Balaka and Martin Botha. For the Shadow Shorts: Andreas Marschall, Cyril Despondin and Nikolae Constantin Tanase.
For the Romanian Days: Ahmet Shawky, Jessica Kiang and Marisella Rossetti.
For the Romanian Days Shorts: Maria Watzlawick, Tara Karajica and Wang Yao.
The Opening Gala’s film was ‘Parking’, by Tudor Giurgiu (Romania-Spain). It tells the story of a Romanian poet in Spain, lingering between love and literature.
The Closing Gala’s screening at the impressive Kluj Opera Theater was ‘The fall of the American Empire’, by Denis Arcand (FIPRESCI award in Valladolid, 2018).
Will a bagful of hold-up money alter the life of an educated person? Dilemmas are common themes in cinema!
The rain, some time heavy and other times gentle, disrupted some open air events but it ceased to let the red carpet roll under the music of a string quartet.
The Awards. In the presence of a popular stand-up comedian and after the address with the usual ‘thanks’ to audience, guests, sponsors, staff and volunteers and, president Tudor Giurgiu, announced the festival’s Transilvania Trophy to the film ‘MONOS’ directed by Alejandro Landes (Colombia-Holland-Argentina-Germany-Sweden-Uruguay), also awarded in Sundance and Berlin 2019. A superb recital of photography in the Columbian mountains depicting a paramilitary young group in a weird conflict.
-Special Mention went to ‘I Do not Care If We Go Down in History As Barbarians’, by Radu Jude (Romania-Czech R.-Bulgaria-Germany). A political film on ethnic cleansing in WW II in Eastern Front. Influenced by Godard, it combines his new wave past with meta-cinema (neo-noir) to amaze the audiences.
-The PITCH awards went to: Between Two Dawns, Athlete, Spass and Democracy in Progress.
-‘Clergy’, by Wojciech Smarzowski (Poland) received the FIPPRESCI award for the stories of three catholic priests.
Special Mention went to ‘Noria’ by Carlos Baena (Spain), from the Shadows Shorts program.
The Competition Audience Award went to the film ‘System Crasher’, by Nora Fingscheit (Germany). A very talented 12-year old actress playing a ‘difficult’ 9-year old school child is an implicit reference-criticism to special services involved (parents, teachers, sociologists, psychologists, etc). A strongly educational film-essay, almost a documentary.
-The Audience Award for the Romanian Days (competition) went to a B&W feature film ‘Moromenttii 2: On The Edge Of Time’, by Stere Gulea. A father and son, after a war, are trying to cope with the social transition from the old social structures to Causesku’s communist regime.
-Romanian Shorts Best received Special Mention: a) ‘Minion’ by Angel Damian (depicting the life of a shepherd boy), b) ‘The Call’, by Anca Damian (a conversation between a mother and her son), and c) ‘Opinci’ by A. Groves & D. Groves, an animated conversation between a father and his daughter.
-Romanian Days Awards: a) Best Debut Award to ‘Monsters’, by Marius Olteanu, premiered in Berlin. It explores the conflicting social attitudes - inner daemons - of a married couple in Bucharest and challenges traditional concepts of love. b) Special Mention to ‘Timebox’ by Nora Agapi, documenting the life and conversations with her 80-year old father, Ioan-Matei Agapi, about his photographic and 16mm films archives kept for over 60 years, in an effort to find sponsors for a suitable museum before it is destroyed. Will the ears of sensitive officials and supporters listen? And, c) Best Feature Award went to ‘Arrest’ by Andrei Cohn. From a nude beach to a Bucharest Sekuritate prison cell, a man is forced to collaborate through utter torture and humiliation. -Best Performance Award went to ‘A White, White Day’, by Hlymur Palmason (Iceland-Denmark-Sweden). A policeman, obsessed with his wife’s death, enters a perilous path. Awarded in Cannes, following his 2017 award with the ‘Winter Brothers’. The Special Jury Award went to ‘A Faithful Man’, by Louis Garrel (France). A strange relationship between two men and one woman. Best Director Award to May El-Toukhy‘ (Denmark-Sweden) for her film ‘Queen Of Hearts’. The life of a happily married and successful lawyer is overturned when attempting to help the teen age boy of a male friend.
From the Francophone program, special mention to ‘Through the Fire ‘, by Frederic Tellier (France-Belgium). A story of a humble courageous firefighter injured on duty. -Marcel Lures received the Excellence Award.
In the intermission, Garry Lukas played his acoustic guitar in front of an enthusiastic audience and Mihai Chirilov, always popular, summed up the evening calling the TIFF 18 an ‘experiment’.
Here are some of the 27 films I managed to watch.
- ‘Belonging’, by Burak Cevik (Turkey-France-Canada). A revealing story of a criminal case.
-‘The Humorist’ by Mihail Idov (Russia and Baltics). Clever title; more humor, less comedy! A subtle criticism and a revenge on censorships practiced by governments and dictators.
-‘Marchal’s Two Executions’, by Radu Jude. Presentation of two controversial views about the execution of Marchal Ion Antonescu, Romania’s leader during WWII. -‘The Whistle’r, by Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania-France-Germany). Collaboration of a police officer with the Mafia encoding ‘whistling’ language; a clear neo-noir film. -‘Synonyms’, by Nadav Lapid, winner in Berlin (France-Israel-Germany). A Bertolucci influenced portrait of an Israeli-born man moving to Paris, denouncing violence and army service in search of identity; loves language games (synonyms and aphorisms), writes poetry and loves porn! All in contradiction.
-‘Thou Shall Not Kill’, by Gabi Virginia Sarga (Romania). A punch in the stomach watching a young surgeon determined to prove malpractices in regards to hospital infections: silent conspiracy of doctors, managers, health department and pharmaceutical companies on diluted medical protection which causes death to children. Close to a documentary. -‘Moon Hotel Kabul’, by Anca Damian (Romania-France). A Romanian prominent war reporter returns from Kabul to discover that some of his stories have hidden secrets; the ‘suicidal’ death of a girlfriend brings out the choices between truth and reality. The funeral ceremony and the burial services imply the church’s medieval views. - In the ‘Distance between Me and Me’, by Nona Nicoara and Dana Bunescu, the literary persona Nina Cassian, now in exile in USA, captivated the viewers with her eloquent analysis of aesthetics and morality fighting censorship and intimidation in Ceausescu era. -‘California Dreaming’, by Fabrizio Maltese (Luxembourg, 2019). A pathetic side of the ‘American Dream’ in the Mojave Desert today.
-Two Greek films were screened: a)’The Miracle of Sargasso Sea’ , by Syllas Tzoumerkas, on the final connection of two different women, and b) ‘Still river’ by Angelos Frantzis. A Greek couple moves to Siberia but the survival depends on rationality and spiritual endurance. - A Cypriot film ‘Pauza’, by Tonia Mishiali. The story of a woman - Hope- abused by a tyrant husband and a failed vindication. FIPRESCI awarded in Thessaloniki and in Special mention in Sofia festival.
- Retrospect films of Navad Lapid and Michel Gondry were exquisite ‘dishes’ of the festival.
-Chinese films are finally anchoring in Romania. Masterclass Chinese: The Goddess (1934) is successfully restored.
-Other events: The concert by guitarist Garry Lucas, Oana Paunescu’s design creations exhibited in the Kluj Art Museum and, last but not least, the exhibition ‘An Evening In My Parents Studio’, meticulously organized by Georgiana But, is an apocalypse!

Kyriakos Peftitselis