Focus on Romania

5 films
A European poet of freedom, an actress fighting for her family, a future saint with a mesmerizing gaze, and a monk who abandoned his son. Five cinematic perspectives on contemporary Romania show a country full of contrasts, where modernity clashes with tradition, the sacred with the profane, and the past refuses to fade into oblivion.

  • Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife (Arsenie. Viața de apoi)

    dir. Alexandru Solomon
    dok2023

    The photo shows a handsome young monk with a mesmerising gaze. Even the portrait alone catches one’s eye, and the legend of his death as a martyr makes Arsenie Boca difficult to forget. Over time, the monk, persecuted by communist authorities, has become a symbol of struggle against the cruel regime and the chief Romanian miracle-worker.

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    film still Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife

  • Between Silence and Sin (Între Tăcere și Păcat)

    dir. Diana Nicolae
    dok2024

    Can poetry pose a threat to a dictatorship? The poems written by Ana Blandiana outraged Nicolae Ceaușescu and his entourage, but they enchanted and touched her readers and literature afficionados, also from outside of communist Romania. The poetry of the legendary author crossed national boundaries, volumes of her poems were published in the West – yet despite many opportunities, she decided to stay in her country.

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    film still Between Silence and Sin

  • Holy Father

    dir. Andrei Dăscălescu
    dok2020

    A child coming to the world provokes future parents to confront their own relatives. For neither of them is it easy as they come from broken homes. Paula has several cautious conversations online, but her partner Andrei, the director of the documentary, decides to set out on a journey to the monastery at the foot of Mount Athos. His father, who is a devout monk now, chose to live there many years ago.

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    film still Holy Father

  • The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters (O Tahtai. Savendar tai Seiandar)

    dir. Catalina Tesar, Dana Bunescu
    dok2022

    A Roma group in Transylvania has a tradition that resemble aristocratic families', of passing on a chalice. The unobtrusive artefact may end up only in the hands of the male offspring of the clan. Problems with getting pregnant or giving birth only to daughters may lead to family conflicts or even pose a threat of ending the relationship. In order to avoid the tragedy, young women decide to undergo a sex-selective abortion.

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    film still The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters

  • Too Close (Apropierea)

    dir. Botond Püsök
    dok2023

    He did not drink, came from a respectable family and attended Mass every Sunday. Only Andrea and her daughter knew that he was a man with a friendly face which concealed dangerous tendencies. When he ended up in prison, the residents of a Transylvanian village, instead of taking the side of the pregnant woman and her child, refused to believe in his guilt.

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    film still Too Close
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