ICR Romanian Cultural Institute London

Waves, Storms and Horizons: Cinema Romania Now

        

Have you seen a Romanian film yet? The question that has been echoed for the past few years at Cannes, Berlin or other major festivals may very well have a refrain in Belfast.

The Romanian Cultural Institute, in partnership with QFT (Queens Film Theatre), is delighted to bring some of the most recent extraordinary Romanian cinema to Belfast. Don't miss a weekend full of great films, master class with Cannes and Berlin Film Festival award-winning director Cristi Puiu, plus the opening party featuring native born Transilvanian, now Brighton-based DJ Nico de Transilvania.
Andras Hathazi, Morgen's leading actor, is also our guest of honour, together with film critic Iulia Blaga, who will introduce the films.

Event Listings:

Friday 28 January
3pm - The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, by Andrei Ujica
7pm - Morgen, by Marian Crisan - followed by Q&A with special guest actor Andras Hathazi
10pm - Opening Night Party with DJ Nico de Transilvania

Saturday 29 January
1pm - Masterclass with Cristi Puiu
3pm - Aurora, by Cristi Puiu - followed by Q&A
7pm - Tuesday, After Christmas, by Radu Muntean

Sunday 30 January
3pm - First of All, Felicia, by Razvan Radulescu & Melissa de Raaf
7pm - Portrait of the Fighter as a Young Man, by Constantin Popescu

Click here to see the detailed programme. (pdf file) The project is organised by the Romanian Cultural Institute in London in partnership with Queens Film Theatre.

When: Fri 28 - Sun 30 January 2011;
Where: QFT, 20 University Square, Belfast BT7 1PA (screening and masterclass) & Menagerie Bar, 130 University Street, Belfast, BT71HH (opening party);
Tickets for the film screenings are £6/£5 and can be booked online at www.queensfilmtheatre.com.
Entrance to the opening party at the Menagerie Bar is free.

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More details about the special events:

Meet the director Cristi Puiu
QFT, Sat 29 Jan, 1pm

I'm not like other directors who don't allow their actors to watch. I let them have one scene their way, one for me, then allow them to compare. I don't choose actors for their appearance or ability in dancing or whatever, but because of their intelligence.

A great opportunity to be in the presence of one of the most original Romanian directors & screenwriters Cristi Puiu.

During the Cinema Romania Now festival, director Cristi Puiu (awarded with Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlin International Film Festival) discusses the recent Romanian cinematography and challenges experienced in film making.

Cristi Puiu's debut as a director was in 2001 with the low budget road movie Stuff and Dough (Marfa si Banii). The film received several awards in international film festivals and competed in the Quinzaines des Realisateurs section of the Cannes Film Festival. He continued with a short film, Cigarettes and Coffee (Un cartus de Kent si un pachet de cafea, 2004), which was awarded the Golden Bear for best short film at the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival.

His second film, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Moartea domnului Lazarescu, 2005), features the drama of an old man who is carried by an ambulance from hospital to hospital all night long, as doctors keep refusing to treat him and send him away. The film was a critical success, being awarded with Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and numerous awards at other international film festivals (47 prizes in 2006).

Puiu intends to make a series of six movies entitled Six Stories from the Outskirts of Bucharest to answer Éric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales series. He intends the series to consist of six love stories, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu being the first story about love for one's fellow man.
The next five films should be about love between a man and a woman, love for one's children, love of success, love between friends, and carnal love. Cristi says that he already has a synopsis ready for each of these films.

The second film in the series, Aurora (in which he also plays the main character), was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival and at BFI London Film Festival, New York, Karlovy Vary, Vancouver, Rotterdam Film Festivals.

Cinema Romania Now - Opening Night Party
The Menagerie Bar, Fri 28 Jan, 10pm till late - free entry.

To celebrate the launch of Waves, Storms and Horizons: Cinema Romania Now at QFT, the Menagerie Bar will host a free opening party featuring native born Transilvanian, now Brighton-based DJ Nico de Transilvania, who has carved her own niche with her unique blend of Balkan/Swing/Electro sounds, with the emphasis on the Balkan.

Often combining live tuba, clarinetists, dancers and aerialists in her performance, Nico made her name at the legendary Balkaneasca nights and other Brighton spots where she rapidly has become a crowd favourite. The consummate entertainer, her infectious upbeat energy behind the turntables as she smiles and dances unleashing slabs of brass, gypsy folk songs, swing basslines all underpinned with a heavy electronic beat for the dance floor has seen her booked world wide events.
More at http://www.myspace.com/nicodetransilvania
Click here for the concert's flyer.