The 5th edition of the Romanian Film Festival in Washington, D.C. takes place November 7-10 at E Street Cinema, under the motto “New Romanian Perspectives”
The flagship showcases of a growing series of Romanian Film Festivals mushrooming all over America is back in the nation’s capital with a carefully curated collection of films, comprising some of the most praised and awarded productions of the past year. The 5th edition of the Romanian Film Festival of Washington, D.C. takes place November 7-10 at E Street Cinema, highlighting the creative vigor of Romanian cinema, its undiminished capacity to offer fresh, surprising perspectives on the human condition, and the universal relevance of its stories and characters. Join us for four days of enriching cinematic experiences and come meet some of Romania’s most interesting filmmakers, from emerging helmers to masters of the screen. Romanian Film Festival of Washington, D.C. is co-organized by the Romanian Embassy to the U.S. and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York with the support of several partners and donors.
Find out everything you need to know about the 5th edition of the Romanian Film Festival in Washington, D.C. at https://romanianfilmfestivaldc.com/.
2024 Romanian Film Festival Full Slate
Thursday, November 7th, 7:00 PM
WHERE ELEPHANTS GO / UNDE MERG ELEFANȚII: DIRS Cătălin Rotaru and Gabi Virginia Șarga
2024, 112’, subtitles
Followed by a Q&A with actor Alice Cora Mihalache & film critic Mihai Fulger
WHERE ELEPHANTS GO is a film in which no elephant appears. It is a story of love and friendship between three characters in a difficult moment of their existence: Leni, a sick little girl, but at the same time full of life; Marcel, a young man with suicidal tendencies for no reason or perhaps for all the reasons in the world; Magda, a mother who tries to forget that life is terrible. WHERE ELEPHANTS GO is a pseudo-melodrama, a puzzle film that the viewers are invited to decipher. And it's a comedy... or almost a comedy.
Cătălin Rotaru and Gabi Șarga is a Romanian writer/director duo. In 2003, they graduated from the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC) where they studied acting. They have been writing and directing for television and theatre for almost 20 years. Their debut short film, 4:15PM. THE END OF THE WORLD premiered at Cannes IFF in 2016. Their debut feature film, THOU SHALT NOT KILL, premiered at Warsaw IFF in 2018.
AWARDS: Two nominations at 2024 Transilvania International Film Festival: Transilvania Trophy - Best Film and Romanian Days Award - Best Feature Film.
More HERE.
Friday, November 8th, 7:00 PM
HOLY WEEK / SĂPTĂMÂNA MARE: DIR Andrei Cohn
2024, 133’, subtitles
Followed by a Q&A with film critic Mihai Fulger
The HOLY WEEK, around 1900, somewhere in Romania. The tense relationship between the Jewish innkeeper Leiba and Gheorghe, his Christian employee, reaches the point where the innkeeper decides to expel the latter. Revengeful, Gheorghe promises Leiba that he will return on Easter Night to “settle” his accounts. This threat comes as a last straw against Leiba’s attempts to cohabit with his hostile, anti-Semitic environment. From then on, Leiba will struggle distinguishing between the real danger and the one fabricated by his anxieties, engaging onto a path of transformation leading to extreme consequences.
Born in Bucharest in 1972, Andrei Cohn is trained in Fine Arts before turning to directing and screenwriting. After a series of short films in the early 2010s, Cohn directs his first feature, BACK HOME in 2015, then AREST in 2019. The latter was presented in competition at Karlovy Vary, at the Transilvania International Film Festival and the Cairo Film Festival. HOLY WEEK is his third feature film.
AWARDS: Winner of Heart of Sarajevo Prize for Best Actor at Sarajevo Film Festival in 2024.
More HERE.
Saturday, November 9th, 4:00 PM
WARBOY: DIR Marian Crișan
2023, 85’, subtitles
Followed by a Q&A with director Marian Crișan & film critic Mihai Fulger
Fall of 1944. World War II is closing to an end. Nicu, a teenager, embarks on a journey through the wilderness of the Apuseni Mountains, in Western Romania, trying to save the horses of his family. He is very attached to his horses caring and talking to them. When a group of wounded German soldiers arrive in the village and begin preparations to retreat, Nicu's horses are taken to help carry men and war equipment. Desperate to save his horses, Nicu steals back his horses and runaways in the forest planning to take them East, over the mountain, to his uncle. On his way through the wild landscape, Nicu meets James, a wounded American pilot who was shot down during a raid bombardment.
Born in 1976, Marian Crișan received his bachelor's degree in film and TV Directing at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC) in 1999. With MEGATRON, he won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
AWARDS: Two nominations at Gopo Awards 2024: for Best Original Music and the Young Hope Award.
More HERE.
Saturday, November 9th, 7:00 PM
HORIA: DIR Ana-Maria Comănescu
2023, 108’, subtitles
Followed by a Q&A with director Ana-Maria Comănescu & film critic Mihai Fulger
Restless teenager Horia takes off on his father’s old motorbike in a cross-country journey to reunite with his love. On the road, he is joined by Stela, a sassy 13-year-old, and an unlikely friendship blooms. “For me,” Ana-Maria Comănescu explains, ”HORIA’s story is about adventure, discoveries and friendship. The film’s atmosphere is colorful, lively, sunny, filled with music, lots of landscapes and endless roads, in a Romanian modern reinterpretation of the American road movies of the 1960s and 1970s.”
Ana-Maria Comănescu is a Romanian screenwriter and director based in Bucharest. She made three short films during her studies at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC), all screened and awarded in various European student film festivals. While writing and developing her debut feature project, HORIA, she participated in multiple film workshops and pitching markets, such as Sarajevo Talents in 2017 and MIDPOINT Feature Launch in 2019. In 2022, she started her Ph.D. in Cinema and became an assistant professor of Directing at UNATC.
AWARDS: Two nominations: at 2024 Sofia International Film Festival for Grand Prix in the International Competition; and at 2024 Transilvania International Film Festival for Best Feature Film in the Romanian Days Award section.
More HERE.
Sunday, November 10th, 4:00 PM
TWST: THINGS WE SAID TODAY: DIR Andrei Ujică
2024, 86’, English
Followed by a Q&A with film critic Mihai Fulger & RCINY Director Dorian Branea
TWST takes as its starting point the arrival of the Beatles in New York for their August 1965 concert at Shea Stadium, and as its title a Beatles song that alludes to the inexorable passing of time. Merging period footage with animation and following several characters through three intense summer days, Ujică’s original film goes beyond established genres to explore a time of upheaval and change when a new political arrangement, new social norms, new tastes are about to sweep away the old ways. A superb meditation on youthful bliss, the passing of time and the political, moral and aesthetic origins of our current societies as well as a hymn to New York City, glittering under the August sun.
Andrei Ujică is a screenwriter and director known for his subversive non-fictional films. Born in 1951, with a notable career in literature, in 1990 he decided to devote himself to cinema. In the same year, together with Harun Farocki, he made VIDEOGRAMS OF A REVOLUTION (1990), a powerful film about the relationship between political power and the media in Europe at the end of the Cold War. Les Cahiers du Cinema listed the film as one of the top 10 subversive films of all time. VIDEOGRAMS was the first part of a trilogy about the end of communism, which continued with OUT OF THE PRESENT (1995), the story of the cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov, who spent 10 months on board of the MIR space station, while back on Earth, with the Soviet Union collapsing. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUȘESCU, which premiered in 2010 at Cannes, ends the trilogy with a haunting portrait of the infamous dictator, recreated through period footage, and a brilliant reflection on history. For many years, Ujicǎ was a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. He founded the ZKM Film Institute in 2002.
More HERE.
Sunday, November 10th, 7:00 PM
THREE KILOMETERS TO THE END OF THE WORLD / TREI KILOMETRI PÂNĂ LA CAPĂTUL LUMII: DIR Emanuel Pârvu
2024, 105’, subtitles
Followed by a Q&A with director Emanuel Parvu & film critic Mihai Fulger
17-year-old Adi is spending the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta. One night he is brutally attacked on the street and his world is turned upside-down. When the family is violently confronted with a truth, they can neither understand nor accept, the unconditional love Adi should receive from his parents suddenly disappears, and Adi is left with only one solution. The film premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm. The competes as the Romanian entry for the 2025 Oscar for Best International Feature.
Born in 1979, Emanuel Pârvu is a film and theatre actor, director, writer and academic at the Faculty of Arts of the Ovidius University in Constanța. He graduated from the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest in 2006. As an actor, he performed in GRADUATION (d. Cristian Mungiu), MIRACLE (d. Bogdan George Apetri), TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE (d. C. Mungiu), PORTRAIT OF THE FIGHTER AS A YOUNG MAN (d. Constantin Popescu). He directed two feature films: MEDA OR THE NOT SO BRIGHT SIDE OF THINGS (2017) and MAROCCO/MIKADO (2021).
AWARDS: Winner of Queer Palm and nominee at Palme d'Or at 2024 Cannes Film Festival, winner of Heart of Sarajevo Best Film at 2024 Sarajevo Film Festival, and winner of Best Director Award for International Cinema. It was nominated at The Nechama Rivilin Award for Best International Film at 2024 Jerusalem Film Festival; for Best Film at 2024 Valladolid International Film Festival; for Best Feature Film at Romanian Days Award section of 2024 Transilvania International Film Festival; and for Gold Q-Hugo at 2024 Chicago International Film Festival.
More HERE.