On June 1st, at 18.45, in Ursus Open Air (Piata Unirii) from Cluj, Transilvania IFF opened with two premieres: 110 years after its first screening, George Méliès' masterpiece A Trip to the Moon was seen for the first time in Romania in a fully re-mastered color version. Then, the Romanian comedy Of Snails and Men, directed by Tudor Giurgiu, had its first public screening.
Inspired by real events, Of Snails and Men tells the amusing story of a group of workers from a bankrupt factory, at the beginning of the '90s. Their lives are about to change when one of the boys comes up with an original solution for saving the factory from closing and his colleagues from unemployment. The cast and crew of Of Snails and Men walked the Opening Gala Red Carpet. Actors Monica Bîrlădeanu, Andi Vasluianu, Dorel Vişan, Andreea Bibiri, Ovidiu Crişan, Albert Dima attended, along with screenwriter Ionuţ Teianu, director of photography Vivi Drăgan Vasile and art director Csaba Damokos. They were joined by director Tudor Giurgiu and producer Oana Giurgiu.
Of Snails and Men will be released in Romanian cinemas starting September 14 2012.
The color version of the Georges Méliès' masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon (1902), was screened for the first time in Romania, 110 years after its first release. The film premiered at the Opening of the Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2011 with an original soundtrack by the French band AIR. For the restoration of this film was set up a project team involving 3 experts in worldwide film restoration: a private collection – Lobster Films, and two non profit entities, Groupama Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage. This team launched one of the most complex and ambitious restoration projects in the history of cinema with a budget equivalent to a long feature high-end restoration (more than 400,000 Euros).
