Two stories by and featuring women are currently (still) in cinemas and I venture to say they might be among the year's most thrilling: Ivana Mladenović's Cloistered Sister/ Sorella di Clausura and Hüseyin Tabak's Gipsy Queen.   

Sorella di Clausura is Stela. Or Stelaaaaa, as she herself screams out, a hilarious reference to the scene in Tennessee Williams's play A Streetcar Called Desire, spoofed so much in pop culture (you might remember Seinfeld) and probably the most adequate way to react as an audience. Stela’s journey is bonkers and relatable at the same time. She is an odd, frumpy thirty-something, living with her family in a crammed flat in Timișoara and has been having a years-long, huge crush on Serbian pop singer Boban, who has seen better days. Stela’s sexual relations to men leave her cold (unlike the thought of Boban), she has no problem spending the family’s last money on his concert, and is just as unfazed by her job. When she harasses Boban’s (alleged) Romanian lover, she manages to charm her enough with her creative insults to be invited to Bucharest and work for the woman’s business selling sex products, and then takes a stab at writing a novel, because why not. A silly, abrasive, slapsticky film that radiates not necessarily chaos – that would be an immediate thought just because Stela’s way is pure chaos – but utter freedom, a sense of movement and freedom and carelessness about conventions and rhythm singular in Romanian cinema. It's also almost tactile in its textured recreation of the early 2000s and crammed interiors full of knickknack. The photography is to die for, saturated to the max, uncannily evocative of places and helped immensely by the perfect set design, embracing the characters in the warmest, most over-the-top light.

Impressive as this all is, it is Katia Pascariu as Stela that inspires awe and makes the film the powerhouse that is it. 'Brave' is a cliché attribute for acting but there is no better word for her work here. Emotionally and physically, she bears it all: a fabulous, physical, live-wire of a performance. But also a bit too much for me: I have endless respect for Pascariu’s fearless way – her deadpan sex talk with an editor that will probably become the stuff of memes, going about her day naked, masturbating on top of the Boban poster with an object I won’t spoil here – but it often made me squirm. I felt she was put through what could have been less and still gotten across everything necessary. Throughout her tribulations, Stela remains her own person and at no point does the film make her the object of pity of mockery despite some seriously puzzling choices, but there were moments when this extreme endurance trip was bordering on excess, both in terms of acting and character plausibility. Still, this is pitch-black funny, irreverent, abrasive filmmaking and this gutsy attitude triumphs over the pic’s flaws, mainly the repetitiveness of the plot and my wish to just give the poor woman a break. By the way: a sorella di clausura (Italian for cloistered sister) is part of a choir that sings after having taken a vow of silence. Stela may appear cloistered but when she sings, she roars.

The other heroine is Alina Șerban’s character in Gipsy Queen. The film is from 2019 but has been playing local theatres for a few weeks. A very different drama, with a conventional story and characters but elevated so much by acting that, while wildly different from Stela, is just as magnetic. Ali Gheorghiu is a single Romani mother in Hamburg, struggling to pay bills, and estranged from her family in Romania. While taking random jobs, she (literally) stumbles into a boxing club. She meets the (stereotypical) tipsy owner who turns out to have a heart of gold and still some good boxing knowledge. He trains her and she becomes the eponymous queen. Her rise from a struggling underdog to an explosive fighter in the ring is made of the best genre scenes: working out at dawn, running around the city, punching a bag. A bit of Rocky, a bit of Million Dollar Baby, and every sports/ boxing film, but working just as great. The film is thrilling when Ali fights, fast and tough. This is where it also works best and less so during repetitive, sentimental flashback scenes with Ali and her father. The cast is good, but it is Șerban fiercely carrying the film and making it striking.

By Ioana Moldovan, film columnist: ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com
Picture info & credit: still from Gipsy Queen, © Dor Film-West/ Dor Film // courtesy of the film's PR team