It’s TIFF time again. Romania’s biggest international film fest has just started and will take over Cluj-Napoca in the next ten days. The months of back-to-back events are so busy; TIFF is happening right on the heels of just-wrapped ESTE FILM Festival, with a killer selection this year (Angela Schanelec’s Meine Frau Weint/ My Wife Cries is such an odd delight that I doubt it will have a local distributor) and the American Independent Film Festival, with really good, more mainstream pics, like Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s coming-of-age wonder Mouse. Good news about this one, it looks like it’s coming soon!

Until I will dedicate space to TIFF’s offerings, here are tips and joys to bookend the festival.  

Let’s start with a recent TIFF alumnus, Igor Cobileanski’s Comatogen, which you can still catch in some cinemas (for instance in Timișoara). The story of a single mother grappling to protect her teenage son, the drama plays out like a thriller across a few days and told from the different point of views of the characters. Comatogen is gripping, full of ominous dread, and keeps you guessing at all turns. A solid recommendation.

To stay in Cluj, cinema Victoria is celebrating queer filmmaking and filmmakers on the occasion of Pride month and will jump back in right after TIFF (until then it hosts only fest screenings). I am delighted to spot again Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (impassioned, intelligent, and so beautiful) and also Xavier Dolan’s Matthias & Maxime (tender, wise, and more restrained than his usual showy fare). A programme of shorts in solidarity with Palestine is the more urgent entry.

And on all screens, one my favourite German directors is present with Miroirs No. 3. Christian Petzold has been subverting genre for decades, and his sharp, intriguing imagination has created so many thrilling films, from Yella (2007) and Barbara in 2012 (both carried by the remarkable Nina Hoss) to his previous release, the fantastic love story/ comedy of manners/ environmental dystopia Roter Himmel/ Afire. Miroirs No. 3 is less immediately appealing, a more subdued and mysterious drama about trauma and loss, with the usual spare dialogue and surprising twists. The more I think of it, the more I appreciate its courage to leave much unanswered, inviting the audience to give into Petzold’s trademark hypnotic, beguiling mood.

Happy June!

By Ioana Moldovan, film columnist: ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com
Picture info & credit: still from Miroirs No. 3 // Hans Fromm, (c) Schramm Film // courtesy of Independența Film