17th Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema NYC

March 30 - April 2, 2023 | Metrograph | Roxy Cinema New York | DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema
April 28 - May 4 | Film Forum NYC

About

Films

The Oak

Lucian Pintilie. 1992, Romania/France, 105 min

RELEASE OF NEW 4K RESTORATION. Actress Maia Morgenstern in person."The Oak" is an absorbing, complicated black comedy about Romania at the end of the Ceauşescu regime. A young schoolteacher named Nela embarks on a spiritual journey following the death of her father, a former government official, whose ashes she carries with her in a coffee jar. During her wanderings through grotesque and often violent surroundings, she meets Mitică. The couple, like Tristan and Isolde at the gates of the Orient, cannot pursue their love without disruption. A series of events – floods, pollution, Mitică’s arrest, military maneuvers and massacres – split up our heroes, and reveal a backdrop in which nothing works properly and everything seems to be falling apart.

Film Forum New York

Apr 28 - May 4
Daily (except April 30):
1:00 | 3:15 | 5:30 | 7:45
Sunday, April 30:
1:00 | 4:45 | 6:30 | 8:45
BUY TICKETS

The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters

Cătălina Tesăr, Dana Bunescu. 2022, Romania, 85 min

U.S. Avant-Premiere. Q&A with Dana Bunescu on March 30. Romania’s most esteemed editor and sound designer Bunescu and expert anthropologist Tesar join forces in chronicling the fascinating universe of the traditional Roma community called ‘cortorari’ and their convoluted marriage rituals. The wedding alliance revolves around the family heirloom, the eponymous silver cup serving as clan emblem and status symbol. Although the bride’s family ought to pay a cash dowry to the groom’s parents, there’s a catch: the bride’s father gets to keep the groom’s chalice until the young couple succeeds in having a baby boy. What follows is the engaging endeavor of one such couple to birth a son, complete with the simmering feud between their families, in this raw and revealing documentary about how generations old customs may shape new destinies.

DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

Thu, Mar 30
6:30 pm | BUY TICKETS

Sun, Apr 2
3:00 pm | BUY TICKETS

R.M.N.

Cristian Mungiu. 2022, Romania/France/Belgium, 125 min

A few days before Christmas, a man returns to his multi-ethnic Transylvanian village to renew contact with the son he had left behind while working in Germany. There, as he tries to become more involved in the boy's education, the peace is cut short when a local company run by his ex-lover decides to recruit foreign workers. Frustrations, conflicts and passions rise to the surface once again, breaking through the community's thin veneer of apparent calm and understanding. Elegantly structured and almost Faulknerian in scope, Mungiu’s latest entry in his signature brand of moral thrillers is a non-judgmental analysis of the driving forces of human behavior when confronted with the unknown, featuring an impressive 17-minute long take that crystalizes the simmering tension all throughout. An IFC Films Release.

Roxy Cinema New York

Thu, Mar 30
9:15 pm | BUY TICKETS

You Are Ceaușescu to Me

Sebastian Mihăilescu. 2021, Romania, 100 min

Despite its intriguing title, this multi-layered oddity is less about the titular dictator’s criminal ruling, and more about his early years as an aspiring communist, as reenacted by a bunch of non-professional millennials who were picked for the cast in a vacant warehouse. Aged between 15 and 22 and coming from different backgrounds, the ‘actors’ enter the game head-on bearing no preconceived ideas of the dictatorship, and the more they get in character, the more they reveal about themselves during the shooting breaks. Shot in striking black and white, this bold and playful meta-film operating somewhere in the experimental space between fiction and documentary creates a collective portrait of a young generation that seems lost in the shades of grey of an ever-changing world.

DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema

Fri, Mar 31
7:00 pm | BUY TICKETS

Sat, Apr 1
3:00 pm | BUY TICKETS

The Goat and Her Three Kids

Victor Canache. 2022, Romania, 83 min

New York Premiere. Secluded from the world in 19th century rural Romania, a widow and mother of three must defend what’s left of her family at all costs from an old family friend turned foe. Popularized by the Romanian curriculum and included in primers, Ion Creangă’s story from 1875 has endured as one of the best-known local folk tales, echoing Brothers Grimm’s "The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats," but much darker and devoid of happy end. This faithful screen adaptation captures the true nature of the famed bedtime story and goes beyond the bucolic setting and its fable-like appearance, delivering a brutal revenge thriller that’s bound for cult status and Halloween celebrations. Featuring Maia Morgenstern of Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ" fame, it unexpectedly became a smashing box-office hit.

Metrograph

Fri, Mar 31
7:15 pm | BUY TICKETS

Sun, Apr 2
5:30 pm | BUY TICKETS

To the North

Mihai Mincan. 2022, Romania/France/Greece/Bulgaria/Czech Republic, 123 min

U.S. Premiere. During his shift on a transatlantic ship’s deck, a religious Filipino sailor (Soliman Cruz, in a standout role) discovers a Romanian stowaway hidden between containers and decides to keep him safe from being thrown overboard by the Taiwanese officers running the vessel. A dangerous cat and mouse game begins as, little by little, his crew and friends, and even God itself turn their back on this Good Samaritan, closing the net tight and leaving him to face his cruel destiny alone. Loosely based on the 1996 Maersk Dubai incident and showing impressive camerawork and soundscape that add to the oppressive and heightened mood of this slow burn thriller, Mincan’s taut debut about moral choices takes an act of kindness and throws it into the Devil’s hands, with devastating consequences.

Roxy Cinema New York

Sat, Apr 1
7:30 pm | BUY TICKETS

Immaculate

Monica Stan, George Chiper-Lillemark. 2021, Romania, 114 min

Q&A with Monica Stan. When young Daria enters rehab to kick the drug habit her first love left her with, her perceived innocence saves her from the sexual advances of the mostly male junkies inside and gains her their protection. Suddenly thrown into the spotlight and enjoying the attention, the girl soon finds out that kind gestures can turn into aggression in the blink of an eye and that special treatment comes at a great price. Stemming from the director’s own experience and shot in a tight format that favors white, ‘immaculate’ compositions, it’s a striking and at times disturbing exercise in moral ambiguity, revealing the numerous shades of grey of the recovery process in overcoming addiction. Winner of the debut prize in Venice, it was the Romanian submission at the Academy Awards in the Best International Film category.

Metrograph

Sat, Apr 1
8:20 pm | BUY TICKETS

Men of Deeds

Paul Negoescu. 2022, Romania/Bulgaria, 105 min

U.S. Premiere. Q&A with Paul Negoescu and DP Ana Drăghici. A middle-aged police chief goes on with his job and modest life in a small town, dreaming of having an orchard, managing regular drunken conflicts at the local bar and largely ignoring the mayor’s questionable deeds and the dubious things that happen in the village. But when a man is murdered, he jumps to the other extreme, trying to be what he has never been before: the justice seeker who arrests everyone guilty. Fresh from the U.S. success with his indie hit ‘Two Lottery Tickets’, director Negoescu goes into Twin Peaks-like territory and flexes his Coen Brothers’ muscles for what Variety deservedly called “an exceedingly mordant comedy that gradually bleeds out to tragedy”. Expect a hilarious Mexican standoff and one of the best performances in the new Romanian cinema. A Dekanalog Release.

Roxy Cinema New York

Sun, Apr 2
7:15 pm | BUY TICKETS

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