Transilvania IFF.25 to celebrate Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu with retrospective

The Transilvania International Film Festival, which will take place between June 12 and 21 in Cluj-Napoca, is set to celebrate director Corneliu Porumboiu with a complete retrospective of his work.

A two-time winner of the Transilvania Trophy, Porumboiu will receive the TIFF.25 Special Award and give a masterclass during the event.

“A defining figure of the Romanian New Wave, Porumboiu has built a singular cinema - precise, ironic, and quietly radical - where language becomes action and meaning is constantly up for debate,” according to the organizers’ press release.

His relationship with the festival is not new. 12:08 East of Bucharest opened the festival in 2006 and won the Transilvania Trophy. In 2009, Police, Adjective brought him a second trophy. He has returned to TIFF many times since, as a jury member, collaborator, and a constant presence in Romanian Days, where his films have been repeatedly awarded.

The retrospective spans all his features: from the deadpan inquiry into revolution in 12:08 East of Bucharest, to the moral and linguistic maze of Police, Adjective; from the stripped-down meta-cinema of When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism to the playful archival experiment The Second Game and the absurdist logic of Infinite Football. With The Treasure, he delivers a minimalist story of obsession and buried hopes, while La Gomera marks a stylish, noir-inflected turn.

The program is completed by his early works, such as Pe aripile vinului, Călătorie la oraș, and Visul lui Liviu, as well as a special screening introduced by the director himself.

(Photo source: press release)