Romanian film review – The Big Screens Are Back: TIFF 2020
Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania’s biggest film festival, took place physically from 31 July to 9 August, which is a small miracle given the general situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how festival have been…
Ioana Moldovan · Journalist
· Updated · 3 min read
Transilvania International Film Festival, Romania’s biggest film festival, took place physically from 31 July to 9 August, which is a small miracle given the general situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how festival have been organised these weeks and months. The screenings were only in open-air venues, with a small selection of titles also available online.
The Romanian Film Days counted no less than 21 features, half of them documentaries, and (delightfully) an animated film, Anca Damian‘s beautiful Călătoria fantastică a Maronei/Marona‘s Fantastic Tale.
Among the fiction entries, the undisputed headliner was surely Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog (having premiered at the Berlinale in February and whose Cluj event was sadly been hijacked by the director’s controversial stance on the use of masks), a total change of pace from his previous film, the light-footed Sieranevada. While just as ambitious, Malmkrog is flawlessly made but a true challenge to sit through, and not just because of it’s running time of three and a half hours, a film easier to admire than to love. Another Berlinale premiere, Radu Jude’s Uppercase Print/Tipografic majuscul is a clever and uncompromising take on a true event in the 1980s when a schoolboy criticised the regime. Dorian Boguță’sLegacy/Urma (snatching the Best Debut award) was a true surprise, a gripping, highly entertaining family drama/police procedural hybrid, and a rare thing in Romanian cinema, a commercial project that does not compromise on intelligence and skill. The film had a brief running period in cinemas in March, and I hope it can find its way back soon to venues or open spaces; it would be a great summer night flick. A further notable entry was Răzvan Săvescu’s Beginning/Început, a laconic two-hander with an excellent Ioana Flora. But the absolute joy of the selection has to be Ivana Mladenović‘s
