Anonimul 2022 independent film festival retrospective in Bucharest

The retrospective of the 19th edition of the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival, which took place in August in Sfântu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta, will take place September 8-11 in Bucharest, at the Cinema Elvire Popesco and ARCUB, writes News.ro.

The Anonimul 2022 program included two competitions featuring Romanian and international short films, one dedicated to international feature films, a special Focus Ukraine section, and premiere screenings of Romanian feature films.

Bucharest audiences will be introduced to films such as Butterfly Vision (2022) by Maksym Nakonechnyi and Mariupolis 2 (2022) by Mantas Kvedaravičius, which were part of the Focus Ukraine program.

The drama Butterfly Vision, starring Rita Burkovska, focuses on Lilia who, after two months of captivity at the front and being sexually assaulted, discovers that she has become pregnant as a result of the rape. She tries to survive the trauma, in a society that is not ready to accept her and her child.

The Anonimul 2022 retrospective closes with a screening of the documentary Mariupolis 2, which opened the festival in Sfântu Gheorghe. It is the last unfinished film by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was captured by the Russian army and killed in the Mariupol region at the end of March. The documentary was edited in record time by the director's fiancée, Hanna Bilobrova, together with the project's producers so that it could be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Also on the program is 107 Mothers (2021 - Slovakia, Czech Republic, Ukraine) by Peter Kerekes, winner of the Anonimul 2022 Trophy. The film, screened on September 10 at ARCUB, tells the true story of the mothers held in a women's prison in Odessa.

This year's award-winning short films - Fragmentations by Miruna Minculescu, named best Romanian short film, Neon Phantom by Brazilian filmmaker Leonardo Martinelli, named best foreign short film, and Aurică, a Dog’s Life by Mihai Dragolea, awarded the Ovidiu Bose Paștină Prize - will benefit from a special screening on September 11 at the Elvire Popesco Cinema, followed by a Q&A session with members of the films’ crews.