To extend a little more the short holiday of Labour Day with another weekend of laziness and going out, we present you this week’s premieres in the Romanian cinemas followed by a few movie recommendations and a new series to be seen on the small screen from the comfort of your home.

What film premieres we can see this weekend in the cinemas of Bucharest:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (directed by James Gunn/action, SF) will be released in Romania on Friday, May 5, 2017. The film is the sequel of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 having Awesome Mixtape #2 in the background. Two months from the events in Vol. 1, the Guardians of the Galaxy travel through Cosmos and fight for keeping the new family united, while helping Peter Quill find out more about his parents.

As you are already used to, here are five fun facts about the film:

• According to Chris Pratt, the script helped him come to terms with the death of his father.
• In an interview, James Gunn said that the questions remained unanswered will get their solutions in this second part.
• Prop master Russell Bobbitt had difficulty finding the cassette decks used in the first film and all of the Sony Walkman headphones they found were broken. Bobbitt contacted Sony to see if they had any available for filming. They didn’t, so he eventually created six from scratch.
• As Groot only communicates with the phrase “I am Groot” using different inflections, James Gunn created a “Groot Version” of the script for himself and Vin Diesel (baby Groot’s voice), having the lines in English.
• The teaser poster is a parody of the Ramones’ cover album Rocket to Russia.

The film is 3D and can be seen starting with May 5^th at Grand Cinema & More Băneasa, Cine Globe Titan, Movieplex Cinema Plaza and Happy Cinema Liberty Mall. The schedule and tickets can be found here or on every cinema’s website.

2. Cabbage Potatoes and Other Demons (directed by Șerban Georgescu/documentary) enters, after a long wait, in the Bucharest’s cinemas starting with May 6.

Mystified about the fact that a ton of cabbage costs 100 RON, director Serban Georgescu decides to spend a year in Lunguletu village. Each year a tousand farmers are expecting to sell over 100.000 tons of cabbage on the local market. During the 52 minutes of the documentary, the director works works side to side with the villagers and presents a satire of the current European agriculture, using the Romanian characteristic style: to grin and carry along. The film was nominated at 2017 GOPO Prizes at the documentary section and won this year’s Filmmakers Union Prize for Documentary and Short Documentary.

The movie can be seen on May 6 at Eforie Cinemateque starting at 8:00 PM, in the presence of Șerban Georgescu and the team. Here you can find more details about the event.

3. Hajnali láz / Fever at Dawn (directed by Péter Gárdos/drama) will be screened during the European Film Festival.

The fest takes place yearly in numerous Romanian cities, including Bucharest (between May 4 and 11) and brings European cinematography on the Romanian screens.  You can find more about this festival here. 

The film follows the story of Miklós, a 25 years old Hungarian man, treated in a Swedish hospital after he was released from a concentration camp.

The doctors inform him that he has a severe disease and that he has 6 months to live. The young man refuses to give up and sends letters to 117 Hungarian girls treated in Sweden to find a future wife with whom to start a new life. One of the girls, Lili, is impressed by his message.

Fun fact:

• The film we recommend is inspired by the correspondence from the youth of director’s parents. “When my father died, my mother gave me two stacks of letters tied with a blue ribbon and red one.” After 17 years, Péter Gárdos turned this letters in a book which is his first novel, and then in a feature film.

The movie can be seen at EFF on May 6 at Elvire Popesco Cinema, starting at 4:00 PM. Tickets can be bought on Eventbook.

Bonus:

4. The Space in Between: Marina Abramovic and Brazil (directed by Marco de Fiol/biographical film) follows the mystic trip of the famous artist in Brazil, looking for spiritual healing and inspiration.

Even though she has often traveled to Brazil since the late 80s, Marina Abramovic will go further in this film: she visits spiritual places, takes part in sacred rituals and looks for the meeting point between spirituality and art.

A combination between a road movie and spiritual thriller, the movie proposes a unique approach of the creative process. The film preview was on April 29 at Elvire Popesco Cinema and was organized by Cine Europa in partnership with the French Institute and BIEFF (Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival). The film was screened also on Tuesday, May 2nd and was followed by a debate with Ileana Bârsan (film critic) and Cosmin Manolescu (coreographer and performer).

The film can still be seen on May 5 (official premiere), then on May 6 and 7 at Happy Cinema Liberty Mall. Check here the details on program and tickets.

For spending time home, we recommend you three films and a brand new series:

1. Illegitimate (directed by Adrian Sitaru/drama) tells the story of 2 siblings, played by Alina Grigore and Robi Urs and their unlawful love. A father who is a doctor (Adrian Titieni) and a lot of denouncements, a family were there’s no limit between moral and legal, not even in the case of an abortion. If you want to discover more about the film and the team’s experiences behind the scenes, you can read the interview with Anamaria Antoci for RFD, with which we started #behindthescreen article series.

The movie will be on TV screen on Sunday, May 7, on HBO 3 and HBO 3 HD, starting at 10:50 PM.

2. Pete’s Dragon (directed by David Lowery/adventure, family) is our recommendation for spending a peaceful Sunday with the whole family, from the youngest to the oldest. This film is the second feature film of David Lowery and follows the adventures of an orphaned boy named Pete and his best friend Elliot, who just happens to be a dragon.

Here are the most interesting three fun facts about the film, in case you aren’t yet convinced:

• Director David Lowery explained why Elliott is a furry dragon in an article, saying that he’d rather have” the kind of dragon you really want to give a hug to” than a Game of Thrones (2011) type dragon, which he described as “cool, but scaly and cold”.
• The film takes place in 1977 and 1983.
• Director David Lowery described his version of the film to be more of a “re-invention”, rather than a straight-up remake of Pete’s Dragon (1977).

The movie will be broadcasted on HBO and HBO HD on Sunday, May 7, at 8:00 PM.

3. The Japanese Dog (directed by Tudor Cristian Jurgiu/drama). As we already used to, there is no #weekendfilms without a recommendation from Cinepub. This time, we encourage you to watch the film that was selected to represent Romania at the 87^th edition of the Oscar Awards (2015) for the Best Foreign Film category. The production also won Best Film Prize at Warsaw International Film Festival and Victor Rebenciuc received the Gopo Trophy for Best Leading Actor in the feature film in 2014.

The film treats in a delicate and tender way the subject of family reconciliation. The action follows old Costache Moldu who lost his wife, house and fortune because of a flood. The unexpected return of his son Ticu from Japan, together with his wife and child, will put them in a situation in which they must learn again how to talk to each other and to become a family again.

The film can be seen online on Cinepub.

Bonus:

4. Genius: Einstein (created by Fox 21 Television Studios and National Geographic/biographical film). The 10-part global event series is the first one based on a National Geographic screenplay and reveals how Albert became Einstein, exploring his amazing professional achievements, but also his complex and volatile personal relationships. The cast includes Geoffrey Rush, Johnny Flynn and Emily Watson. The series filmed in Prague is based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe, and analyzes deeply the life of Einstein beging with his young years and reviewing his oscillating moments, from exaltation to cruelty.

The series had the premiere in April in 171 countries and 45 languages, reaching Romania on April 30 at National Geographics. New episodes are released every Tuesday.

Romina Banu

Photographer and editor; she co-founded Dissolved Magazine together with Melissa. For Films in Frame she gathers film and TV series recommendations for lazy weekends and she writes about interesting projects from the film industry. Other than that, she likes traveling, chilling with her cats and sleeping.