Astra Film Festival – Documentaries about the real Romania and Nick Broomfield as a special guest
The Astra Film Festival in Sibiu returns for a new edition between October 9-16. During the festival, 17 documentary films about the “Real Romania” will be screened, of which 14 will be presented in national premiere. Afterwards, some of these films will also be available online for audiences all around the country.
“This autumn’s edition will truly be a festival, in all the bright senses of the word, if we think about the fact that most of the films in the official selection are premieres and bring to the big screen never-before-seen content. They are poorly financed productions, which brings an additional argument to the idea that we are talking about films with relevant, valuable content. And when Romanian films that were developed in Sibiu, in the «laboratories» of the festival, are released, their success is a celebration for the entire Romanian cinema community,” said Dumitru Budrala, director-founder of Astra Film Festival.
The program will include discussions with the filmmakers and Q&A sessions.
Opening the festival is The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters (dir. Cătălina Tesăr, Dana Bunescu), which presents the interesting world of the “cortorari”, a traditional Roma community from Transylvania. The film explores ancient customs, marked by arranged marriages, at the center of which is, symbolically placed, a golden cup handed down from generation to generation.
Nick Broomfield, one of the most influential documentary film directors in the world, will be present at the AFF as a special guest in the Portrait Program “A Life in Documentary – Masters”. The director will hold a masterclass moderated by Liviu Tipuriță and three of his films will be screened: My Father and Me, Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love, and Tales of the Grim Sleeper.
Other selections exploring communities and traditions are Memories from the community – Gheorgheni and Frumoasa (dir. Armine Vosganian), revolving around 100-year-old Peter, the only man from Frumoasa who still speaks Armenian and knows the customs of the elderly, and Flying Sheep (dir. Alexandra Gulea), a deep foray into the culture of Aromanians.
Communism and post-communism are brought to the attention of the public through titles such as In search of the engineer Dragomirescu (dir. Dragoș Zămosteanu), Rear Entrance to Socialism (dir. László Csibi), and You Are Ceaușescu to Me (dir. Sebastian Mihăilescu), whereas films like Waves on dry soil (dir. Raluca David) and Arsencik’s First Birthday (dir. Valentin-Rareș Fogoroș) address the phenomenon of migration.
Human destinies, in all their variety and always captivating, make up the central focus of these documentaries: Globus (dir. Clara Kleininger), The Man and His Shadow (dir. Dragoș Hanciu), Trapped in His Own Movie (dir. Alexandru Oiță), The Road Ahead: Terra Banatica ( dir. Mircea Gherase), My Home, My Home (dir. Anikó Nagy), Too Close (dir. Botond Püsök), One click away (dir. Janine Gruen).
The festival selection also includes the satirical essay Whose Dog Am I? (dir. Róbert Árpád Lakatos), which shows big politics as a world where citizens are dogs, and politicians – dog breeders.
Liviu Mărghidan’s The Sentries of the Delta will be screened within AF Junior.
The AF New Media program will feature special projects in the sphere of Concept Art, VR, Augmented Reality, and immersive 360° films.
For more details, visit the Astra Film Festival website and Facebook page.
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.