Romanian cinema, most exciting in Europe, says Hong Kong Film Festival director Roger Garcia; festival to include Romanian movies

The Romanian cinema is the most exciting in Europe today and it helps the country stand out, said producer Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFFS) in an extensive interview featured on Monday’s U.S. Wall Street Journal issue. “The country that stands out is Romania. Its cinema is the most exciting movie-making in Europe today. And I'm not just saying it because we have a Romanian section in our festival this year”, he explained for WSJ. The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF ) will this year include a special section for Romanian movies. HKIFF will present a selection of recent Romanian films, including Aurora, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceausescu), If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle (Eu cand vreau sa fluier, fluier), Morgen, Outbound (Periferic) and Tuesday, After Christmas (Marti, după crăciun). “I saw a film, "Police, Adjective," which is a police procedural movie about the surveillance of a petty drug dealer, and it had such a deadpan humor about it that I found amazing. It was an impressive piece, and it was such an offbeat, entertaining movie. It was the sort of movie you saw in the new wave in the 1960s”, says Garcia. Second time executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society, 30 years after his first term, Roger Garcia returns to his hometown, after spending time in California as a producer, film writer and consultant to various film festivals, to a show that has evolved into one of the largest in the world. This year’s edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival will screen over 330 films, starting March 20, will be Mr. Garcia’s second term on the job, which started in October. Read the entire Wall Street Journal article here. Irina Laptoiu