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.
"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.
Constantin Noica spent the last years of his life "1400 meters above humanity", as he liked to say - in Păltiniș. Far from the communist gray, but still kept under observation by the Securitate, the philosopher found in this place the joy of talking about wisdom. In the modest room on the 1st floor of Villa 12, what we know as the "Păltiniș School" was born.
A documentary work about the emblematic Romanian character Serghei Mizil, the son of Paul Niculescu-Mizil, a former communist dignitary, in which Serghei presents in detail the way of life and brutality of the system during the communist regime in Romania.
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.
A film constructed on a text that seems to be a theatrical performance rather than the transcript of a trial. The camera traces facades of communist housing blocks, depressingly unchanged over the years, as the transcript from the trial of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, is read without pause or emotion. The intensity of the film is created by the tension between the dizzying and unceasing movement of the camera and the continuous and expressionless reading of the trial script, recording a very dark episode of modern history. — Anthology Film Archives
The first Romanian documentary exploring the relationship between humans, animals and nature.
Jean Mihail’s "Rapsodia Rustica" deals with the life in Romanian villages in the period after the war.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived happily with her parents and her younger sister. But the little girl lived in Romania and her parents really wanted a house for them, so they went to work in Spain. The little girl stayed with her sister in the care of her grandmother and so the years passed, until one day the little sister told her that their parents were going to return. So the little girl began to hope.
An odd night at a strangers home.
"Life is a Bitch" is a sci-fi video-novel which finds its set in a possible future where the Left has the opportunity to build its project on Europa, moon of planet Jupiter. The short film follows the struggle of a left-minded couple which couldn’t afford the flight to the “Socialist Moon”.
The film explores sites and practices of memory in post-socialist Bucharest, twenty years after the fall of Romanian communism. It was shot in Cismigiu Gardens, one of the oldest public parks in Bucharest. This central, urban space attracts people from all walks of life. It is a place for social interaction, solitary reflection, reverie, and memory. Interweaving recollections of the past with present-day scenes from the park, the film presents a montage of stillness and motion, images and voices, landscapes and people.
A split-screen animated film that explores the complex nature of memory in contemporary post-communist Romania. Using a collection of everyday, household objects as windows into the past, it features 16mm stop-motion animations of these artifacts, projected alongside selections of interviews from the ethnographic research with the objects’ owners.
"Aflați despre mine..." stands as a quintessential social documentary from the perspective of 1980s filmmakers, delving into the effects of labor migration from agriculture to urban industry. Filmed in bachelor accommodations, it captures the intimate confessions of residents, offering faces and voices to the societal shifts in socialist times. The documentary, set against a backdrop of dormitory life, features a nuanced soundtrack blending informal interviews with the monotony of daily routines. Panning from window to window, the camera reveals the aspirations of temporary dwellers dreaming of a future beyond provisional living and aiming to settle into homes of their own.
Self-exiled in Turkey since 1999 and recently expelled, Mr. Constantin discovers that he had been declared dead by the Romanian authorities, at the request of his wife.
Bogdan Mihailescu creates a short animation about the famous Gopo`s little man.
What if as a result of the Original Sin, God didn't cast out both Adam and Eve from Paradise? What if the actual punishment were more sinister than that? If you had to wait an entire life just to see your lover, could you endure it?
