First episode of HBO hit show House of the Dragon to premiere at TIFF.23 in Romania

Attendees of the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (June 14-24, 2024, Cluj-Napoca) will have the opportunity to watch the first episodes or complete seasons of new series, presented as national premieres in the To Be Continued section.

Highlights include the first episode of the second season of House of the Dragon, the prequel to the phenomenal Game of Thrones series, and a documentary miniseries about Nicolae Ceaușescu.

House of the Dragon is a prequel to HBO’s Game of Thrones. The first episode of the show was viewed by over 10 million people on its premiere day. The second season will have its absolute premiere in the cinema at TIFF.23.

Also at the festival is Comrade: The Making, Glory and Unmaking of a Dictator (r. Trevor Poots, Romania, 2024). In three episodes, the documentary series traces the fate of Nicolae Ceaușescu, from his childhood to his rise as the most powerful man in communist Romania. Besides archival footage and historical reconstructions, it includes numerous interviews with those who knew him closely, to create as honest a portrait as possible.

Other films and episodes of shows are featured during the festival. Filmed in distressing black and white, 1286 (r. Alisher Utev, Kazakhstan, 2023) tells the story of a surgeon who is kidnapped and deported to a labor camp, where he struggles for survival and to maintain his humanity.

The action in Milky Way (r. Vasilis Kekatos, Greece, 2023) takes place in a mountain town where residents oscillate between frustration and the desire to escape. The protagonist is Maria, a high school student with aspirations of becoming a dancer, whose plans are thwarted when she becomes pregnant.

Soviet Jeans (r. Stanislas Tokalovs, Teodora Markova, Latvia, 2024) shows Renars, a rebellious young man trying to escape the strict rules of late 1970s communist Latvia. He gets a job as a costume designer in a theater troupe and falls in love with a Finnish director. His adventure truly begins after he comes under the scrutiny of authorities, who commit him to an asylum. There, he starts an illegal jeans factory.

Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calo are two of the most well-known Spanish actors, and together, they have created a successful series. Their latest, The Messiah (La mesías, Spain, 2023), is the story of two brothers trying to overcome the traumas left by their upbringing under their fanatically religious mother.