HBO Day, dedicated to a long time partner of Transilvania IFF, will bring - on June 4 - four original documentaries, such as the multi-awarded Toto and His Sisters (by Alexander Nanau), Chuck Norris vs. Communism, the story of the pirated video tapes in Communist Romania, screened at Sundance, The Network (by Claudiu Mitcu), Bird Man (by Alexandru Mavrodineanu & Mihai Grecea) and Trading Germans (by Răzvan Săvescu). The Olive Kitteridge marathon (by Lisa Cholodenko), starring Frances McDormand, will be screened on June 4, at Cinema Arta, from 10:00am.
Bird Man
The story of a 78-year-old aviator who fights to stay in the air. Winter is too long for Mami. His only connections with aviation are the medical check-ups, which are more and more difficult to pass during the last years. But Mami won't give up: even if he is the oldest Romanian aviator still in activity, he has plans for the future and new goals to achieve.
Chuck Norris vs. Communism
In 80s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look. A black-market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the people and sparked a revolution.
Olive Kitteridge
The story, which spans 25 years, focuses on Olive, a middle-school math teacher, and her relationships with her husband Henry, the good-hearted town pharmacist, their son Christopher, who chafes at his mother's parenting style, and other denizens of their community.
The Network
In Romania, chemotherapy drugs are neither accessible free of charge, as required by law, nor can they be acquired in pharmacies. Many of the patients who try to procure drugs are helped by a true network of people. Its members do not get any financial benefit from their participation in this "trade". The documentary follows the drugs route from one of the oldest pharmacies in Vienna to the patient in Romania.
Toto and His Sisters
Totonel (10) and his sisters, Andreea (14) and Ana (17), are waiting for their mother to come back home from prison. As they grow up, each of them learns how to survive on their own, hoping that when their mother returns, the family will be reunited.
Trading Germans
The story of one of the largest trade of human beings in post-war Europe: the organized, systematic sale of the whole German population of Romania to the state of West Germany. This film centres on the individual stories of the people directly affected by this trade.
