Ceau, Cinema! Festival returns for its 9th edition between July 14-17, in Timișoara, with an impressive selection of films, as well as special events. Opening the festival is the Romanian film Metronom (dir. Alexandru Belc, 2022), screening in the presence of the director and lead actress Mara Bugarin.

The festival program includes a variety of titles such as R.M.N. (dir. Cristian Mungiu, 2022), screening in the presence of the director and actress Judith State, a restored version of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s masterpiece The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Almanac Cinema: Six Short Films (dir. Radu Jude, 2022), Man and Dog (dir. Ștefan Constantinescu, 2022), Vortex (dir. Gaspar Noé, 2021), Another Round (r. Thomas Vinterberg), The Big Hit (dir. Emmanuel Courcol, 2020) and Sorry We Missed You (r. Ken Loach, 2019).

Two of the last year’s most appreciated films, Blue Moon (dir. Alina Grigore, 2021) and Things Worth Weeping For (dir. Cristina Groșan, 2021), will be showcased in a special section focused on the new female voices in Romanian and Hungarian cinema.

The International Competition comprises six films about freedom, formerly selected at Venice, Cannes and Berlin:

Reflection (dir. Valentin Vasianovici, 2021) – A surgeon is captured by the Russian military forces in the conflict area in Eastern Ukraine, where he is exposed to horrific scenes of humiliation and violence. The film had its world premiere in the competition of the 2021 Venice Film Festival, and at Ceau, Cinema!, is part of the section Focus Ukraine, a tribute to the Ukrainian resilience in the war that Russia started;

Leave No Traces (dir. Jan P. Matuszynski, 2021) – A strong Polish drama on the fight for freedom of a young man witnessing the tragedy of a friend, the son of the anti-communist poet Barbara Sadowska, who was beaten to death by the police in Poland, in 1983. World premiere in the competition of the 2021 Venice Film Festival;

The Hole (dir. Michelangelo Frammartino, 2021) – follows the extraordinary adventure of a group of speleologists who start exploring several unknown caves in the South of Italy, in August 1961. The film won the Special Jury Award at the 2021 Venice Film Festival;

Great Freedom (dir. Sebastian Meise, 2021) – follows the relationship that a man builds with a cellmate over several decades, during his repeated times of confinement in a German post-war prison based on the law incriminating homosexuality. The film won the Jury Award in the section Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2021, and the Grand Award at Sarajevo;

Women do Cry (dir. Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva, 2021) – focused on a single-gender family – female –, in a society where the word “gender” is not a familiar one;

All Eyes off Me (dir. Hadas Ben Aroya, 2021) – A bold film bringing into discussion sexual freedom through the story of a young woman whose fantasies collide with reality. The film was screened in the Panorama section at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival.

The jury of the competition consists of actress Judith State and directors Cristina Groșan and Eugen Jebeleanu.

Highly awarded documentaries at Ceau, Cinema! Festival

This year’s edition includes a rich selection of local films, produced in the Banat region, and four highly awarded documentaries, focusing on today’s topics like environmental awareness, the relation with the past, and the approach on sexuality:

You Are Ceaușescu to Me (dir. Sebastian Mihailescu, 2021) – designated the best film from Central and Eastern Europe and won the Best Cinematography Award at Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and the Award for Best First Feature Film at DocLisboa festival;

Taming the Garden (dir. Salomé Jashi, 2021) – The documentary had its world premiere last year at Sundance and was nominated at the European Film Awards;

Babi Yar. Context (dir. Sergei Loznitza, 2021) – nominated at the European Film Awards;

MUTZENBACHER (dir. Ruth Beckerman, 2022) – The film won this year’s Encounters section at Berlinale.

The films will be screened in the ”Doc-minică” section of the festival.

Close-up Miklós Jancsó

Ceau, Cinema! Festival pays homage to the great Hungarian filmmaker Miklós Jancsó through a retrospective showcasing three of his films: The Confrontation (1969), Red Psalm (1972), and Electra, My Love (1974).

“In 2021, we celebrated 100 years from the birth of Miklós Jancsó, one of the most important and fascinating Hungarian directors. Due to pandemic restrictions, we couldn’t pay tribute to him back then. […] Famous for his political cinema, we thought of Miklós Jancsó as a natural choice for an edition that we wish to be an invitation to reflection on the theme of the surrounding crises”, stated the festival organizers.

The festival also promises a variety of special events, such as the screening of Havel (dir. Slávek Horák, 2020), a biographical film about the former Czech president Václav Havel’s journey from playwright to politician. The screening will be followed by a debate on Václav Havel’s career in the presence of the director of the Czech Center in Bucharest, Robin Ujfaluši, and writer and university professor Adriana Babeţi.

The event will be completed by the Romanian launch of Václav Havel’s book Political prisoner and president. Alone against the system.

Ceau, Cinema! will also hold a workshop on the ensurance of full accessibility for disabled persons at public events, which will be attended by representatives of local authorities and field NGOs, and preceded by a screening, accessible to the disabled, of the Romanian film The Campaign (dir. Marian Crişan, 2020). The event will be free entry.

Ceau, Cinema! Festival takes place in Timișoara, between July 14-17, 2022. For more details, visit the festival website or Facebook page.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.