جمع من عند Romania

The gradual opening-up of Romania during the 1960s continued with the reorganisation, in 1972, of the national strategy for culture and tourism promotion, and the establishment, as part of the new Council for Culture and Socialist Education (CCES), of a special commission in charge of the national strategy for incoming foreign tourists. It was in this context that the National Tourrism Office (ONT) strategically commissioned, via its media arm Publiturism, a series of films meant to persuade various communities from the Romanian diaspora to spend their holidays – and their money – “back home” in Romania.

A young male has a testicle problem and starts projecting his biggest fears based on his research on the internet. His girlfriend and twin brother come to the rescue.

A woman’s journey towards liberation and healing through recollections of her younger self.

Little Ones Describe the Big World is not so much relevant as a sample of the directorial work of filmmaker Gabriel Barta as much as it is as an example of the early writing of one of Romania’s most peculiar and prolific writers, Radu Cosașu, who, at the time, worked closely with the Sahia studio after going through a difficult patch with the political establishment. The film is structured through the father-daughter dialogue written by Cosașu to lend colour and a narrative to the aforementioned exhibition. The style of his writing combines the wit, irony, and casual tone that have become his trademark: here, however, these qualities are put to work for the benefit of the socialist state’s political agenda.

The documentary gathers stories of people who face their own gravestone photo while still alive. If you could choose one photograph of yourself that others will always remember you by, which one would you choose?

An ethnographic film about rural Romanian life in the commune of Teișani, Prahova.

A Dying Leaf Should Be Able to Carry the Weight of the World is a visit to the botanical garden and museum in Cluj-Napoca, a journey through time and space, a discovery of plants with unknown stories, of plants that don’t exist anymore, of plants that can tell us as much about the past as they can about the future. Fossils, herbs and botanical illustrations are witnesses of the past, proof of evolution and change, but also prophets of what is yet to come.

Surge of Transference is a video essay that investigates the expansion of the internet in a small Romanian town, where communities have formed and shifted around the newly imported Western technology. Within this micro-universe, the video traces the rapid transformation of the Internet, from the early days of peer-to-peer software to the upload of online late capitalism.

A tale from the 16th century narrates the story of Ursula, a female figure disguised as a man, who successfully chased away occupying intruders (at that time, the Ottomans) using the supersonic sound of a whip. This account purportedly originated in Cincu, the Transylvanian village which today houses one of N.A.T.O.’s key combat training zones in Romania.

"Sisyphus" is a take on insignificance, repetition and the invisible chains that bind us to the routine of our daily lives.

On August 23rd, 1944, the fascist regime was taken down and Romania changed sides in World War II. 75 years later, inside the Jewish Retirement Home, four of the last survivors of racial persecutions reflect upon the personal and political significance of the event. The different attitudes of the protagonists, their passionate debates and irresolvable conflicts reflect the diversity of the Jewish survivors` experiences, the cleavages in the community and the Romanian society as a whole, as well as the importance and controversy of the events in 1944.

"The whole world is a stage and all people are actors. They rise and fall in turn, each one: A man plays several roles in life, And the acts are the seven ages..." (William Shakespeare, How You Like It) The story of a man - Mihai Sarca - for whom the theater means everything and for whom a whole life defined himself by his passion for the stage and for the people who serve it, thus becoming the treasurer of an archive collection and, at the same time, a living encyclopedia of the Romanian theatrical phenomenon of the last century.

The world of Viorica Cătuna, from Poiana Cătunarilor, in Transylvania, somewhere at 1200 meters altitude. A former teacher, she has always been passionate about knowledge, books, poetry and music. We learn her story, the history of her family and the history of her community, all in correlation with historical events that have taken place over the years. A portrait of this woman and the times, from when she learns the stories of her family to the future plans she has in her 80s. A charismatic and storied character, an encyclopedia of a vanishing community.