The fourth year of the Romanian Film Festival in London, due April 26 – 29, will be opened by Corneliu Porumboiu’s “A fost sau n-a fost?” (“12:08 East of Bucharest”). Also presented will be another short and feature-length films.
A novelty this year is that the Ratiu Foundation, organiser of the festival, decided to offer a GBP 1,500 mobility grant titled STEPdoc, to a Romanian filmmaker at an early stage of their career. The winner will be able to become familiar, within a month, with the British documentary culture, in view of developing their own documentary project with an international potential, reads the web site www.romanianculturalcentre.org.uk.
The festival will start on April 26 with an 11-minute documentary on Ion Ratiu, given that 2007 is the ninetieth anniversary of his birth, and with Corneliu Porumboiu’s movie. “Ion Ratiu – The Man behind the Bow Tie” was produced in 2001 by Ivor Barladeanu, a Romanian-born Canadian.
Apart from “12:08 East of Bucharest” the Festival will include Romanian feature-length films such as “The paper will be blue,” directed by Radu Muntean, “Love sick” – Tudor Giurgiu and “The way I spent the end of the world” by Catalin Mitulescu. Adding to these will be Alexandru Solomon’s “The Great Communist Bank Robbery” and a documentary on Paul Neagu, a Romanian artist living in UK (“Heart of the Tornado” by Laurentiu and Agnieszka Garofeanu).
The festival will also include a number of short and medium-length films: “Lampa cu caciula” (“The Tube with a Hat”) by Radu Jude (winner of the Sundance 2007 international competition), Lucian Pintilie’s “Tertium non datur,” “Marilena from P7” and “C Block Story,” both directed by the late Cristian Nemescu, and preceded by a short introduction of director Nemescu (1979-2006).
Directors Corneliu Porumboiu, Catalin Mitulescu and Radu Muntean are expected to take part in the festival. Just like last year, the Festival will take place at the Curzon Mayfair Theatre. |