The Usual Suspects
Five of the former Transilvania Trophy competitors return to Cluj in a section of their own, Usual Suspects, now at its second edition.
As the official competition focuses exclusively on first and second time directors, TIFF wants to follow the careers of those discovered here and who are now part of the increasingly larger circle of festival friends.
One of these directors is Dagur Kári, winner of the 2003 Transilvania Trophy with Nói albinói and the 2005 Cinemagia Award for Dark Horse. Virgin Mountain, a recent three-time winner in Tribeca Film Festival (Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor), is Kari's fourth feature and was described by the jury as "a mixture of humor and pathos that touched our hearts and stayed there". The film tells the story of Fúsi, a lonely man with childish hobbies who, at 43 years of age, falls in love for the first time and discovers what being an adult really means.
One of TIFF's oldest friends, Chilean Sebastián Silva, returns to TIFF with his sixth film, Nasty Baby, winner of the Teddy Award in Berlinale and a Sundance entry. The film tells the story of three people who have to make a tough decision: bringing a new life into the world. For one of them, a Brooklyn artist whose next project focuses on newborns, and for his best friend, whose about to be artificially inseminated, Nasty Baby challenges the limits of parenthood, innocence and morality, with a surprising ending. After making two films with Michael Cera, the director is the star of this one alongside Kristen Wiig and Tunde Adebimpe, sleader of TV on the Radio.
From the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, arrives Amour fou, by Jessica Hausner, a double TIFF entry – in 2002 with Lovely Rita, in 2005 with Hotel. "A mysterious film which will haunt you for a long time", says ARTE. The film takes place in 1810, in Berlin, and is inspired by the true story of a writer who wants to commit suicide, but not by himself.
Miguel Cohan, winner of the Transilvania Trophy and the Best Screenplay Award at TIFF 2011, with Sin Retorno, returns with Betibú, an Argentinean thriller in which a writer of who-done-it novels is asked by an important newspaper to write about "the case of the year" with the hidden purpose of a cover-up. Michael Noer, whose previous films won two awards in TIFF (Best Acting in 2013, for Nord-Vest; Best Cinematography in 2010, for R), returns with Key House Mirror, a family drama in which a 50 year old marriage comes to a halt.
