Home & Away Brochure
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THURSDAY 10 APRIL 2008 SATURDAY 12 APRIL 2008 COLD WAVES be/-longing survival lessons Alexandru Solomon Romania/Germany/Luxembourg, 6.00 pm / Opening film 4.00 pm / Shorts 2007 CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' (ENDLESS) THE BOXING LESSON (documentary) Cristian Nemescu Alexandru Mavrodineanu Romania, 2007 Romania, 2007 HOME SUNDAY 13 APRIL 2008 Paul Negoescu journeys through thick and thin FRIDAY 11 APRIL 2008 Romania, 2007 (sort of ) fun on the run 2.00 pm THURSDAY TESTIMONY 6.30 pm / Shorts Hadrian Marcu Razvan Georgescu IN THE MORNING Romania, 2007 Germany/Romania, 2008 Radu Jude (documentary) Romania, 2007 SANDPIT #186 PROGRAMME Adina Pintilie / George Chiper 4.10 pm BAKHTALO! Romania, 2006 STORY Robert Lakatos Dana Ranga Hungary/Austria, 2004 REALITY WON'T BITE Germany, 2003 (documentary) Marius Olteanu (documentary ) UK, 2008 LIFE'S HARD 6.10 pm Gabriel Sirbu 6.15 pm THE ARRIVAL OF THE TRAIN AT THE Romania, 2007 TELEPHONE CALL ABROAD STATION Hanno Hofer Bogdan Apetri INSPIRATION Romania, 1998 USA, 2006 Igor Cobileanski Moldova, 2007 OCCIDENT THE REST IS SILENCE Cristian Mungiu Nae Caranfil SASHA, GRISHA & ION Romania, 2002 Romania, 2007 Igor Cobileanski Moldova, 2006 8.30 pm A GOOD DAY FOR A SWIM 8.50 pm Bogdan Mustata THE CRUISE Romania, 2008 Mircea Daneliuc Romania, 1981 Tickets: £12.00/£9.00 Curzon members. For details on how to become a Curzon member, please go to page 30. Bookings: In person, online www.curzoncinemas.com or by phone 0871 703 3989. Venue: Curzon Mayfair, 38 Curzon Street, W1J 7TY. Closest Tube stations: Green Park and Hyde Park Corner. Dragi prieteni, * Our festival is now five years old. As these things go it's not a baby any more but, of course, it's not fully mature like the Cannes Film Festival... all that is yet to come - but I think we can call it a teenager (in film festival years!). And like any adolescent it is now beginning to spread its wings and demonstrate new and surprising qualities.' Nicolae Ratiu Chairman, Ratiu Foundation California Dreamin (Endless) * - Dear Friends (in Romanian) 3 Dear Friends, We meet again for our fifth annual disobedient rural Romania, being fast- films coming from places other than celebration of Romanian cinema at Curzon tracked to redefine normality. He gets to Romania and you will agree that they add- Mayfair. meet Dracula too, albeit not in the on nicely to the ones from home. original plus a helping of Elvis Rromano, As you know, what we like to call New the king of rock'n'Rrom - yet another We lined up a polyglot celebration of great Romanian Cinema has been doing hilarious intersection of the local with the cinema by Romanian film-makers we marvellously lately. After decades in which global! have English, German, French, Hungarian, it was hardly on the map, in less than five Rromani, Turkish, some broken Italian and years it has switched to being the At the heart of Nemescus film is a twisted even a small helping of Chinese Mandarin! happening cinema on the international version of the American Dream, in which film scene. Romanians waited for the Americans to And we also plan to teach British audiences save them from the Russians in the how to spell some new Romanian names As faithful friends of our festival, you might aftermath of WWII: Americans never came this year, now that theyve proven their remember that last year we focused on so communism stayed and today how dedication by learning the likes of Romanias past imperfect and on New timely is this story of longing and non- Mungiu, Puiu and Porumboiu. Nemescu Romanian Cinemas own way of bidding interventionalism! In praise of Nemescus died while he was the raising star of New farewell to that past. This year we went for vision, we developed our festival around Romanian Cinema. In praise of his a change its going to be Geography rather the concept of Home & Away. truncated career, we have included two than History. special shorts sessions with the freshest Dislocation and longing provide the names coming out of Romania today. And what better choice for thinking about connective tissue of this years programme, longing and belonging than Cristian which includes film-makers, documentary So welcome to our celebration of Romanian Nemescus Cannes winner California subjects and fictional characters who cinemas home-coming into World Cinema, Dreamin! It seems to me that the further navigate between the realities, dreams and and also of five years of Romanian Film East you go the more un-punctual are the expectations of here and there. Many films Festival in London! trains, remarked Jonathan Harker, the in the programme are about journeys British gentleman journeying by train from territorial, identitary or philosophical; We take pride in having initiated our England to Count Draculas remote castle. actual, planned or imagined. festival right at the time when the new In Bram Stokers novel, Harker was the voices of Romanian cinema started to be quintessential other coming with his array And we must admit that this year we heard at an international level. Weve been of prejudices, only to be trapped in indulged ourselves in a more fluid sense delighted to share and follow their success Draculas lair. of geography when it came to mapping over the past five years and we look Romanian-ness, by integrating works forward to doing the same in the future. Nemescus Cpt. Jones (Armand Assante) is from Romanian film-makers based outside an American Harker for modern times, their birth country. It took some weeks of trapped with his train, troops and all in a compulsive googling, but do check on our Adina Bradeanu - Programme Curator 4 California Dreamin (Endless): Armand Assante and Razvan Vasilescu THURSDAY 10 APRIL 2008 6.00 pm be/-longing Followed by Q&A with actor Razvan Vasilescu and producer Andrei Boncea Opening film: CALIFORNIA DREAMIN (Endless) (Cristian Nemescu, Romania, 2007, fiction, colour, 155; Romanian/English with English subtitles) With: Armand Assante, Razvan Vasilescu, Jamie Elman, Maria Dinulescu, Ion Sapdaru, Alex Margineanu, Andi Vasluianu California Dreamin' is an epic satire, with both Produced by: MediaPro Pictures modern-day Romania Courtesy of Artificial Eye. This film will be released by Artificial Eye in selected cinemas nationwide on 30 May 2008. and US foreign policy firmly in its sights. Un Certain Regard Award, Cannes 2007 Satyajit Ray Prize, 51st Times London Film Festival 2007 A stubborn station master confronts a NATO mission. In 1999, a NATO train transporting military equipment is stopped in the middle of nowhere by the overzealous and overtly anti-American chief of a train station in Romania. The transport, supervised by American soldiers, is crossing Romania without official documents, based only on the verbal approval of the Romanian government. Set against the backdrop of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the film explores the impact that the arrival of the American soldiers has on the tiny village community: historical experience, corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency and romantic interest concur in a mayhem battle of wills with tragic consequences for the village but not for the Americans. At the end of five intense days, the train resumes its journey leaving behind broken hearts, shattered dreams and a civil war. A cinematic tour de force, as well as a poignant and hilarious comment on parochialism, Nick Roddick, intercultural clashes, and Romanias long-term fascination with America. London Film Festival 6 When he died at 27 in a car crash which also claimed the life of his sound designer (Andrei Toncu), Nemescu was the most promising voice of New Romanian Cinema, with a distinctive directorial voice and a proven taste for life on the margins. Having recently graduated from film school and with a number of international awards for his short films already gained, Nemescu was interested in sexuality and cinematic language. He aimed to mix fantasy with social realism, and dreamt of walking out of the habitual realist aesthetic of Romanian cinema. All his short films had a sexual intrigue: exploring sexuality was a way to break free from the harsh skin of the real, and to reach out to alternative human and cinematic realms. Instead of a social cinema Nemescu wanted love stories. His cinema was not minimalist, but excessive and flamboyant a characteristic which also emerges from his feature film, incorporating a newly-discovered interest in social and political comment. The car crash happened late at night when Nemescu was returning home after working on the post- production of California Dreamin his debut feature was also his last film. Cristian Nemescu (1979 2006) 7 FRIDAY 11 APRIL 20086.30 pm (sort of) fun on the run Followed by Q&A with film-maker Igor Cobileanski SHORTS: BAKHTALO! A car, a taxi, two vans and a motorcycle: (Robert Lakatos, Hungary/Austria, 2004, the world is set in motion. City, town or documentary, colour, 30; countryside everybody seems to be Romanian/Hungarian with English engaged in some sort of quest, looking for subtitles) (part of omnibus Across the Border, a hotel, a temporary shelter, a parking Austria, 2004) space, an electric cable, and - why not? -a poet willing to lend his talents to a cause Golden Dove, Dok Leipzig 2004; Best European which requires urgent action. Eastern Film and Best Feature-length Documentary, European humour always travelled well, Syracuse 2004 for Across the Border as demonstrated by our light-hearted shorts session. Two zany characters. Two borders. One In the Morning bumpy ride. One Europe. Or two, maybe? IN THE MORNING / DIMINEATA LIFES HARD / LA DRUMUL MARE (Radu Jude, Romania, 2007, fiction, colour, (Gabriel Sirbu, Romania, 2007, fiction, 28; Romanian with English subtitles) colour, 20; Romanian with English subtitles) With: Oana Ioachim, Andi Vasluianu, Gabriel Spahiu With: Andi Vasluianu, Claudia Prec, Gabriel Spahiu Two characters, one taxi, a crisis and a compromise.