Romanian Docs Shine in ‘Weak’ Year for Fiction in Transilvania

A few months after Radu Jude’s Silver Berlin Bear for best screenplay in Berlin for “Kontinental ‘25,” Romania’s largest film festival, the Transilvania International Film Festival, is here to help take the temperature of the country’s national cinema. Jude’s latest, as well as the director’s Andy Warhol-inspired “Sleep #2,” spearhead the Romanian Days section of TIFF, taking place in Cluj-Napoca over June 13-22. 

Jude’s two films join another 14 Romanian features at this year’s festival, as well as 25 short films. Standouts include Bogdan Mureșanu’s Orizzonti award winning “The New Year That Never Came” and the latest by renowned auteur Andrei Ujică, “TWST – Things We Said Today.” 

Speaking with Variety ahead of the festival, artistic director Mihai Chirilov says: “Revisiting the past is always a winner” with Romanian cinema, as proven by both Mureșanu’s lauded feature debut and Jude’s latest comedy. But, despite finding success at major festivals, the curator believes Romanian cinema didn’t have a particularly great year, which is reflected in a slimmer selection at Romanian Days — in 2021, for example, 32 features played in the strand.

“Romanian cinema kept a low profile so far,” adds Chirilov. “Although a lot of emerging filmmakers such as Andrei Epure, Andreea Bortun, Cecilia Stefanescu, Ivana Mladenovic, and Mihai Mincan wait in line with their new films, hoping for a world-premiering slot in a major festival later this year.”

Festival founder and president Tudor Giurgiu is a bit more optimistic, emphasizing how “exciting” it is to see new voices continue to emerge every year. “The evolution of Romanian cinema is interesting because commercial films are doing well, Netflix is encouraging and financing them, and there are good box office figures. But there are also filmmakers working against that grain and going abroad, like Cristian Mungiu and Corneliu Porumboiu.” 

“There is a new energy coming from what we know as the Romanian New Wave and even an expectation of having Romanian films at every major festival, which is a testament to the solid level of filmmaking we are seeing right now, which is great,” he emphasizes.

One standout takeaway from this year’s selection is the strength of Romanian documentaries. Six out of the eight features in competition in Romanian Days this year are documentaries, with “The New Year That Never Came” also having roots in non-fiction as a historical tragicomedy. These docs include Lina Vdovii’s intimate look at modern slavery and fragile familial relationships, “Tata,” and intricate archival works looking back at the country’s turbulent past, like Andra MacMasters’ “Bright Future.”

Chirilov alerts, however, that it is “tricky” to assume that Romanian documentaries are doing strong just because they dominate the Romanian Days line-up.”

“The truth is that the fiction is particularly weak and poorly represented this year. However, there are true doc gems here, either dealing with sensitive topics such as Alexandru Mavrodineanu’s heart-breaking ‘Love Hurts’ or Endre David’s shocking ‘Beyond the River’ or brilliantly commenting on existing archive footage, such as Ana Lungu’s ‘Merman.’”

Outside competition, the festival is hosting world premieres of anticipated national titles, such as Igor Cobileanski’s moral drama “Comatogen” and TIFF’s very own Giurgiu, who is at the festival with “The Spruce Forest.” The director behind “Nasty” and “Love Sick” returns to Cluj with a film inspired by the tragedy of Fântâna Albă in 1941, recounting the fate of a Romanian community in Bessarabia, massacred in a desperate attempt to find refuge from the Soviet occupation. 

Of wearing two hats at the festival, Giurgiu says it is “difficult,” but he doesn’t want to give up filmmaking to dedicate himself exclusively to TIFF. “It’s a good moment for me, I have two or three other films lined up and, especially after the success of my recent films, I feel like I still have lots of things to say.”

Speaking of his latest, the filmmaker says it is a “hybrid work” combining fiction, documentary, and archival footage to tell “the story about a page of our history that was not at all tackled.” “I was curious about representations of history and how you can deal with trauma on screen. It’s a project that took me over eight years because it was tough for me to find the creative vehicle to convey these feelings. The final product is also about our responsibility towards history and how we as individuals can face the lies and manipulation present in every war and revolution.”

The director says releasing his film about genocide and war at such a sensitive sociopolitical time was a coincidence, but one he is not dissatisfied with. “It took me years to have enough distance to use the incredible testimonies from the survivors. Interestingly enough, the timing is good because I think people should understand more about what Russia is in terms of war philosophy. It’s good to remember moments like this to understand that history continues to repeat itself.”