History of Romanian Fiction Cinema: Lecture + Short Films

Lecture by Gabriela Filippi and Radu Toderici

In the past decade and a half, Romanian cinema made its way to the foreground of the arthouse cinema scene, while the grim realism of the likes of Cristi Puiu, Cristian Mungiu or Corneliu Porumboiu seduced curators, cristics and juries alike, collecting prize upon prize. So if this is the new wave, how did the old one looked like? Behind the Iron Curtain, what forces shaped the Romanian film industry and the stories they told? Film researchers Gabriela Filippi and Radu Toderici will guide the audience through the history of Romanian cinema, starting from its first feature film, released in 1912, and up until its present day international successes, passing through the realist socialist films of the fifties, the cosmopolite formalism of the sixties and the polemic realism of the seventies and eighties, that gave rise to the first auteur generation – Romanian New Wave directors’ predecessors.
The lecture will be accompanied by a series of four video essays signed by film critics Irina Trocan, Andra Petrescu, Andrei Șendrea and Flavia Dima under the curatorship of Oana Ghera, that aim to give the audience a glimpse into the stylistic and thematic variety of Romanian cinema and its century old history.
Gabriela Filippi is a PhD candidate at “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC) in Bucharest, with a thesis entitled “The state as co-author. Censorship in the Romanian socialist cinema, 1948-1989”. She teaches Romanian film history at UNATC.
Radu Toderici is a film critic and film researcher. He has studied comparative literature at the Babeș-Bolyai University, in Cluj-Napoca, and has earned a PhD in the same field in 2012. He writes mainly about the history of Romanian cinema.

FILMS:

A TRIP TO THE CITY / CĂLĂTORIE LA ORAŞ (2003)
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
19’-OVEN
A shy teacher and a versatile driver from a small village are going to the city, sent by the mayor to bring a computer for the Mayoralty and a toilet for the mayor’s wife, but things don’t end like they supposed to.

COFFEE AND CIGARETTES / UN CARTUȘ DE KENT ȘI UN PACHET DE CAFEA (2004)
Director: Cristi Puiu
13’ - OVEN
An old man enters a restaurant in Bucharest. He takes a seat at a table where a younger man who looks like he could be a successful businessman is already eating dessert. Their short meeting shows two generations with different mentalities, but who act according to the same principle: Kent cigarettes and a pack of coffee can make the difference when you want to get a new job.

IT CAN PASS THROUGH THE WALL / TRECE ȘI PRIN PERETE (2014)
Director: Radu Jude
17’ - OVEN
An old man tries to play backgammon with friends while babysitting his granddaughter. She is unable to sleep after hearing of a suicide in their building. Based on a short story by A.P. Checkhov this poignant tale reminds us of the sensitive nature of childhood fears.

History of Romanian Fiction Cinema: Lecture + Short Films
120’ - EN
In collaboration with Europalia.Romania