TIFF 2024 Opening Gala: Dogman
Dogman, dir. Luc Besson, France, 2023
Main cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick, Grace Palma
Dogman, dir. Luc Besson, France, 2023
Main cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick, Grace Palma
Dimitri's Bats is an independent 5-piece band based in Bucharest, RO. A fresh sight on the Romanian alt-pop scene, constantly blurring the lines between dancefloor beats and alternative riffs, blending eclectic sounds and dark undertones into a unique vibe that will get anyone tapping along.
Their second EP, ‘Monobloc’, has been released in 2023 and was followed by a national tour.
Metropolis, dir. Fritz Lang, Germania, 1926
Original music & live interpretation: Edison Studio (IT)
Musicians: Mauro Cardi, Luigi Ceccarelli, Alessandro Cipriani, Vincenzo Core, Andrea Veneri cu vocile artiștilor Anna Clementi, Martin Figura, Eric Moser, Marco Noia și Andreas Otto.
Set in the future, Metropolis is a perfect, super-technologized city where people live happily. But appearances are deceptive. Behind it lies a huge gap between the upper class and the workers who toil endlessly to sustain this world. Is mediation possible between these two social categories? The film is based on the novel of the same name written by Thea von Harbou in 1925. A story imagined 100 years ago is just as relevant today. After a turbulent history, in which the original version seemed lost, Metropolis was digitally restored in 2010.
August 1971. Soccer teams from England, Argentina, Mexico, France, Denmark, and Italy gather at Mexico City for a monumental tournament: crowds of over 100,000 roaring fans attending every match. But this is a tournament unlike anything that’s happened before.
18:30 – Film Screening: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, dir. Pedro Peira, Spain, 2024, 83’ | Cercul Militar
20:30 – Dinner prepared by Chef Radu Dumitrescu at Da Pino, presented by URSUS
Kadjavsi started in 2017, as a project that mainly focused on improvised ambiental piano soundscapes, recorded by Bucharest-based musician Nikita Dembinski. Some of these albums, such as “Breaks That Friend Your Heart” or “A Bounding Situation”, were released in cassette form through independent local label Beach Buddies Records.
Dembinski then later went further into producing and released his first single in 2021 called “Each Day”, where he debuts as a lyricist and vocalist too, shifting the style of the project by making his first alternative pop song.
1936, Tokyo. Sada Abe is a former prostitute who now works as a maid in a hotel. The hotel's owner initiates an intense affair that consists of sexual experiments. But as he is more eager to please her, she becomes increasingly possessive and jealous of him.
1972. Ilie Năstase wins his first US Open, while reaching both the Wimbledon and Davis Cup finals, and enters tennis history. Nasty explores his highs and lows, the controversies that surrounded him and the enduring impact he has had on the world of tennis.
18:30 - Film Screening: A Chef for Dalí, dir. David Pujol, Spain, 114’ | Cercul Militar
20:30 - Dinner prepared by Chef Florin Dumitrescu at Da Pino, presented by LIDL
Heavenphetamine is a musical duo composed of Hiroki (keyboard/vocals) and Sara (drums/vocals). Their distinctive style involves synchronising Sara's acoustic drums with Hiroki's synthesised sequences created through synthesisers and loop pedals, resulting in an electrifying fusion of electro-infused composition with a physical and punk-inspired edge, all achieved without the use of a metronome. Described as a blend of Krautrock and Post-Punk, their musicality strongly reflects the influence of Western indie music.
Cheerily amoral Hassan is willing to try almost anything to escape his financially challenged, dead-end life as a security guard in Egypt and head to Europe.
A Page of Madness, dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa, Japonia, 1926
Original music & live interpretation: Irina-Margareta Nistor & CelloFun
Garden Party at the Castle
Tuesday, June 18, 6:00 PM
Bánffy Castle in Răscruci
18:30 - Film Screening: Sugar and Stars, dir. Sèbastien Tulard, France, 110’ | Cercul Militar
20:30 - Dinner prepared by Chef Paul Oppenkamp at Da Pino, presented by Nespresso
Praised by Marc Rebillet (‘’this is dope’’) and being honoured by TEDx Cluj for an outstanding performance Jacob Medrea is truly a one man show. Saxophone, Beatbox, Drums, Singing, Keyboard and a Loop-Station get turned into grooves of all shapes to get the crowd moving. Breaking the borders between Live-Show, DJ and Improv-Comedy, Jacob is giving it his all to give the crowd the full experience of a wild live show.
In 1755, the impoverished captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer the harsh, uninhabitable Danish heath with a seemingly impossible goal: to build a colony in the name of the King. In exchange, he’ll receive a desperately desired Royal name for himself.
Dracula’s Death / Moartea lui Dracula, r. Károly Lajthay, Austria, 1921
New Fossils emerges as a fresh force in Budapest's dynamic jazz landscape, blending youthful energy with seasoned expertise. Anchored by drummer Dániel Ferenc Szabó and bassist Marcell Gyányi, the band represents a convergence of top-tier talent from diverse musical backgrounds.
Luís Villas Boas, the Last Trip, r. Laurent Filipe, 2023, Portugalia
1794. General Tadeusz 'Kos' Kosciuszko returns to Poland, planning to start an uprising against the Russians by mobilizing the Polish nobility and peasants. A ruthless Russian captain, Dunin, plans to capture the general at all costs before he causes a national rebellion.
One side of the ocean is Latin America, intense and mystical land. On the other side, there is Paris, Belleville, multicultural, urban and modern land. Through her music, La Chica reunites those two worlds by proposing a collage of sound textures, borrowed from her cultural heritage and various modern influences, by breaking the established codes.
City Without Jews / Orașul fără evrei, r. Hans Karl Breslauer, Austria, 1924
Original Music and Live Performance: Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin
17-year-old Adi is spending the summer in his home village in the Danube Delta. One night he is brutally attacked on the street and the next day his world is turned upside-down. His parents no longer look at him as they did, and the seeming tranquility of the village starts to crack.
Chromatic sounds and pulsating groove: Giorgio Assi (producer, synthesizers and vocals) and Leonardo De Franceschi (drums and percussion) are inspired by the sound of post-punk and post-disco, intertwining it with a kraut-rock in sound-system key.
The duo was selected for Transmusicales, MENT Ljubljana, Mondo Festival (New York) and the major italian festivals! They had the pleasure to be the opening acts for Joy Division/New Order's Peter Hook, Yin Yin, Pendulum and great italian artists like Cosmo, Calibro 35 and Dj Khalab. Their live set is simply overwhelming.
The Stolen Jewels (1909)
The Cord of Life (1909)
The Voice of the Violin (1909)
The Englishman and the Girl (1909)
Original Music and Live Performance: Donald Sosin & Joanna Seaton
Moromeții 3 continues the story of Niculae, Moromete's youngest son, who in the 1950s becomes a young, well-regarded writer living his life and complicated love stories in a charged atmosphere, tainted by suspicion.
The traditional music player Simion Bogdan-Mihai comes from a family of artists, where his grandmother played the voice and his father the violin. He started studying the cobza at 15 and by 16 was already travelling around Romania collecting lute songs and learning from the few remaining cobza players. Since 2017, he has performed numerous concerts of lute music with the "Lăutarii de Mătase" (Silk Lute Players).
Born from the musical dreams of Istanbul-based musician/producer Tolga Boyuk, Islandman represents a fictional character, a music persona, a dreamer composing the stories of a non-existing place… Islandman performs on stage in an electro-acoustic live trio format. Their music can be described as a unique mix of mellow electronic structures & dance beats with spacey live guitars, backed up by shamanic rhythms.
Two teenage brothers take a road trip to the border between Mexico and the US to track down the man responsible for the car accident that caused their father’s death.
Cireșan represents the emotion of love in all its forms. His music is a fusion of Hip Hop, Funk and R&B, all forming a different kind of "Pop" as he would say: "My music is an underground Pop." Cireșan uses the patterns of those around him and with each song he dresses up a different character that symbolizes love in its own unique way. Cireșan walks us through lyrics with rap-like cadences and more often than not brings us into melodic, powerful and harmony-filled choruses.