Two Romanian movies to be screened at this year’s edition of BFI London Film Festival

Two Romanian films will be screened during the 55th edition of BFI London Film Festival, which will be held between October 12 and 27 this year. The movie “Aurora”, directed by Romanian Cristi Puiu was included in the “Film On The Square” section.

Five years after The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (NYFF 2005), Romanian writer-director Cristi Puiu returns with another singular, uncompromising character study, this time casting himself in the demanding lead role.That man, named Viorel, is a metallurgical engineer whose life seems to have spun loose from its axis, leaving him to solemnly stalk the streets of Bucharest, encountering former colleagues, a mistress, his mother, and his former in-laws, all the while harboring a secret plan designed to restore order to the whole. In a series of long, methodical takes, Puiu plunges us directly into Viorel’s world, making us both voyeur and accomplice to his actions, as we gradually come to understand just who this man is and the inevitability of where he’s going.

The second movie, “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, directed by Andrei Ujica was included in the ‘Cinema Europa” section.

An astonishing work of the sociopolitical imagination, Andrei Ujica’s audacious essay film imagines the life of the controversial Romanian president as he himself might have recalled it on the eve of his 1989 execution. Working from a treasure trove of pristine archival footage (of official Communist-era newsreels), enhanced by an ingenious sound design, Ujica spins a riveting first-person narrative that traces its subject’s rapid rise through the political ranks, his efforts to unify the Communist East, and even his goodwill tour of the Americas—with little matters like the millions of ordinary Romanians denied basic human services consigned to Ceausescu’s subconscious (and Ujică’s cutting room floor). The pièce de résistance: a North Korean welcome ceremony that ranks with Busby Berkley at his most kaleidoscopic.

Watch the trailers below. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com