Available February 19 at 10:00 am—February 25 at 10:00 am ONLY
This eclectic two-hour package of Romanian shorts highlights the best from the last three years, including the top winners of the Romanian Days section at the recent editions of the Transilvania International Film Festival: The Christmas Gift (2018), Sandals (2019), and Sorrow (2020).
Films in this program:
Bucharest Seen from Above
Andrei Răuțu. 2020. 17 m. NR. Romania. Romanian with subtitles. Saga Film.
A charming old lady (played by pop star Marina Voica) needs to be taken to the elderly care home. A cloud of guilt begins to engulf the sunny Bucharest sky when the family members realise what they are about to do.
Celed
Anghel Damian. 2019. 23 m. NR. Romania. Romanian with subtitles. Aparte Film
A father offers his 7-year-old boy to a shepherd as a helper, but on the first day of work, he loses a sheep. The desperate search that follows turns this fable set in present-day Romania into a harsh coming-of-age story.
The Christmas Gift
Bogdan Muresanu. 2018. 23 m. NR. Romania/Spain. Romanian with subtitles. Mailuki Films.
In the midst of the December 1989 Romanian Revolution, a father’s quiet evening turns to sheer nightmare as he finds out that his son wrote and mailed a letter to Santa Claus asking for the death of Ceaușescu, no less.
Sorrow
Sarra Tsorakidis. 2020. 28 m. NR. Romania. Romanian with subtitles. Papillon Film.
After many years of living abroad, Eli comes home to attend her mother’s cremation. The family reunion brings out old misunderstandings and unresolved differences in this stylish and darkly humorous melodrama.
Sandals
Anton Groves/Damian Groves. 2019. 18 m. NR. Romania/France. Romanian with subtitles. Bagan Films.
The bigger-than-life true story of a Romanian “Phileas Fogg,” who took on a challenge to travel around the globe in a thirteen-year journey, becomes a meticulously animated moral lesson about perseverance in the face of loss.
Sașa and Petre
Luca Istodor. 2020. 10 m. NR. Romania/US. Romanian with subtitles.
Sașa talks about his convoluted 45-year long relationship with Petre in a time when homosexuality was criminalised, in this surprising and inventive mix of documentary and stop-motion animation.
Admission to the series will be sold as a pass only available in the JBFC Virtual Marquee. (Please note: no tickets are available to individual films, only series passes are available.) Pricing is $60 (members), $70 (nonmembers). All film programs will be available to stream for 48 hours unless otherwise noted. Series passes will go on sale Friday, Feb. 12.
