Romanian film – Soccer, scientists, and secret agents: Romanian Days@TIFF

Another edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (in short, TIFF) has just ended and it was once again a pleasure being there. TIFF has grown into a massive undertaking, making some bemoan the loss of its initial small-scale charm, when everything was less perfect and (apparently) more passionate. This might be indeed a valid regret, but growth is inevitable and for the Romanian film industry, TIFF's remarkable development is more than necessary.

In addition to the traditional Romanian Days, a section screening the most recent and last year's national entries, the homage payed to a prestigious Romanian filmmaker (this year it was almost-forgotten Iulian Mihu) and a new edition of the Transilvania Talent Lab, the most ambitious new project sets out to save Romania's deplorable network of state cinema theatres, many of them being in ruin or simply not used anymore. Save the Big Screen (Salvați Marele Ecran) is an initiative meant to raise awareness of this problem and find ideas for a long-term solution. It's high time such a project was started.

As far as the films are concerned, the Romanian Days were a mixed pleasure, as always. Although I have to say that this year was a bit weaker. I am talking about Romanian-French pseudo-

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ilosophical horror movie Cripta/The Crypt, an annoyingly bad film on a French investor being trapped inside the courtyard of a – well – crypt at Băile Herculane, or about the amusing but childish #Selfie, a film which you might enjoy if you were seventeen, maybe, but I could never understand why it's included in a competition. For grown-ups.

The winner of the Romanian competition, Al doilea joc/The Second Game, must have been an easy one because it is the only film in the selection which stands out, at least due to its experimental, intelligent, and fresh approach. The winner of the best debut, Câinele japonez/The Japanese Dog, is also a fine picture, a careful family story. The black-and-white thriller set in a scientists' community in communism,