Noosfera 2011
A captivating portrait of sociology professor Nicolae Dumitru, who preaches a theory about true love but has difficulty putting it into practice in its own life
A captivating portrait of sociology professor Nicolae Dumitru, who preaches a theory about true love but has difficulty putting it into practice in its own life
The year is 1972, two years before the regular newsreel produced by the Sahia Studio – known as The Week in Pictures – was discontinued. Sahia started producing the newsreel at the beginning of the 1950s, as an extension of the Sound Newsreel produced by the National Cinematographic Office. Production ceased in March 1974, after newsreel had been made obsolete by television news.
Armed with a gun he finds thrown in the corner of the block of flats where he lives, Nae sets off on a nocturnal adventure through the city. Influenced by his cinephile imagination, the reality of the almost deserted streets merges with a noir drama atmosphere he obsessively watches. Projected into the grey landscape of Bucharest in the late 1990s, the tragic and absurd action of Cristian Lucian Dobrovicescu's short film is cut out and stylized in the manner of comics.
In order to cure his patients, a doctor makes a show using mad people, presented to other mad people. From innocent games, the show gradually leads to unsetting occurences.
A father and his children are preparing for the New Year. The eldest daughter is almost 30 years old and is used to playing the role of mother to the others, sacrificing her education to raise them, after the death of her real daughter. The second daughter is in high school and has difficulties in physics, for this reason she is punished to stay at home and solve problems in this subject. Of the two boys, one is the pride of the father, being the first and only student in the family. In a cordial atmosphere, punctuated from time to time by surprising musical fragments, the story develops around daily events. But the very next day, the appearance of a young woman who is important to the eldest son inspires the father to reconsider the sometimes too authoritarian relationship he has cultivated with his children.
In the ruins of a religious building, a council-orchestra of elders sits enthroned in carved chairs in the abandoned space marked by the passage of time. A military band crosses the empty streets of a residential neighborhood and attracts people, chairs and buildings like a vacuum cleaner in its festive and monotonous cadence. A young star who keeps waiting ends tragically in the middle of the crowd gathered to witness the performance.
The film begins as a cultural reportage of the most conventional kind, with a series of frames filmed around Peleș Castle, set to classical music and accompanied by a commentary describing the museum's ceramic collection. What is surprising in this construction is the unusual effect that the natural setting, chosen as the original backdrop of the presentation, has on the exhibits. Removed from the museum and displayed outdoors, the objects fail to resonate with nature and stand out like anomalies in the wintery, postcard-like landscape. But the romantic surplus of Chopin's music, which is added to the increasingly abstract visual compositions, with vases, trinkets and precious tableware fancifully placed in the water of a stream and among snowy fir trees, represents an at least extravagant attempt to deviate from the aesthetic norm.
Two identical hotel rooms, two phone conversations, a single door and a single point of view from which all these glimpses of days in the lives of two strangers are captured: a man in transit through an unidentified provincial town (we only get to know that it's somwehere in the mountains) and a woman who came from far away to seek a better life, who makes love for money every night. The film's visual minimalism, the elliptic, fragmented narrative structure, the lack of a clearly-articulated theme turn this experiment into an early exemplar of a certain type of modernism, which would reach its peak in Romania only two decades later.
Fired from the editorial board of a humor magazine because he isnțt funny enough, protagonist Vică remains unemployed until he accidentally reunites with an old acquaintance on the muddy streets of Bucharest in winter.
Through an oneiric and experimental lens, the filmmaker confronts her own experiences of harassment and institutional control, exploring how these encounters shape perception, body, and agency. Inspired by the photography series of the Romanian visual artist Geta Brătescu, the film navigates opacity and vulnerability, creating a reflective space where trauma is both embodied and mediated through artistic practice. By blending personal narrative with abstract black and white analogue photography, the work opens a dialogue about witnessing, control, and resilience, offering a meditation on the subtle violences that mark professional and intimate spaces.
Bridges are built to connect people, unless it is forbidden to cross them. The towns of Sighet in Romania and Ukrainian Slatina are separated by the river Tisza. A recently rebuilt bridge is supposed to not only reunite the two towns but also bring back together friends and relatives who have been divided throughout history by various political decisions. The former bridge was destroyed by German troops in 1944. After WWII, the border was closed. For 50 years there was nothing but silence between the inhabitants of Romanian Sighet and the city of Slatina, which then belonged to the Soviet Union. The film documents the long, often absurd and eventually vain struggle of the local inhabitants and politicians to reconnect the two communities.
What do you see when you listen to the radio? What do you hear when you look at the image of water? Like a crossword, this film is made up of a series of questions and answers that, viewed from a distance, seem chaotic and meaningless, but put into relation to each other become simple truths.
Disguising his smuggling operation as humanitarian aid, Fane ventures into Ukraine to retrieve contraband cigarettes. His mission is complicated when a young refugee, Oleh, sneaks into his van with no way for them to understand each other.
This urgent documentary uncovers the real-life, long-term impact of cyber violence and online sexual abuse and how it reshapes lives, communities and our entire digital culture.
Dreamlike and experimental film essay.
About the life of an anthill.
When two people can no longer understand each other, love turns into conflict, and conflict into tragedy.