A record number of 18 features and 19 short films star in this year's line-up of the Romanian Days – Transilvania IFF's showcase and competition dedicated to local productions. Traditionally scheduled for the ending days The third feature by acclaimed Romanian director Cristi Puiu, Aurora, opens the Romanian Days on Thurday, June 3rd, in Cluj Napoca's Republica Cinema. Cristi Puiu's new feature follows the same route as his previous one, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, winner of the Un Certain Regard Trophy in Cannes 2005. Puiu is competing again in the Un Certain Regard section, coming to Transilvania IFF right afterwards. An impressive drama following the destiny of Viorel, a 42-year old, divorced and unemployed man, who decides one day to end up with the uncertainty in his life, Aurora is also Puiu's debut in feature film acting, as he plays the leading role in this outstanding film.
Tuesday, After Christmas, director Radu Muntean's comeback to Cannes after his presence in the Directors' Fortnight two years ago with Boogie, is another highlight feature in the Transilvania IFF Romanian Days. Muntean's fourth feature is selected together with Aurora in the Un Certain Regard competition. Casting Romanian star actors such as Dragos Bucur (Police, Adjective, Boogie), Mimi Branescu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Paper Will be Blue) and Maria Popistasu (Love Sick, Sex Traffic), Muntean brings on screen a love triangle, with Paul (Mimi Branescu) emotionally stuck between his wife and mistress.
Fiction features Red Gloves (dir. Radu Gabrea) and HBO Romania feature documentary The Shukar Collective Project (dir. Matei Aexandru Mocanu) will have their world premieres during the 2010 Romanian Days. Also Hello! How are you? (dir. Alexandru Maftei) will have a preview screening in this year's edition. Awarded titles such as If I Want to Whistle , I Whistle – Florin Serban's Silver Bear-winning box office hit; Portrait of The Fighter as a Young Man, presented in this year's Berlinale Forum; Francesca, opening film of the Horizons competition in Venice 2009 will also be screened in this year's Romanian Days.
Included in the official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival, Andrei Ujica's documentary on the life of Romania's fiercest dictator, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu, is closing the 9th Transilvania IFF, on Sunday, June 6th.
The short film showcase and competition of the Romanian Days consists this year of 19 titles, selected by the festival's artistic director Mihai Chirilov. Previously present in Cluj-Napoca with his Locarno-awarded short Waves and his debut feature awarded in Thessaloniki and Palm Springs Hooked, Romanian director Adrian Sitaru is returning to the Romanian Days with two shorts: The Cage, awarded with the DAAD Prize in the Berlinale Shorts 2010 and Lord – both of them very funny dramedies having as a pretext the relations between humans and animals.
The Romanian short selected in the 2010 Cannes Directors' Fortnight, Ionuţ Piturescu's anthropological portrait Quest also competes in the Romanian Days Shorts line-up.
Two of the most important young Romanian directors, Adina Pintilie and Iulia Rugina, return to Cluj-Napoca with their brand new shorts. Pintilie will screen her short Oxygen, selected in the 2010 Tiger Awards short film competition of the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Rugina's medium-length Stuck on Christmas, starring Ozana Oancea (First of All, Felicia) and Madalina Ghitescu (Marilena from P7), is one of the most awaited Romanian short films in the last few years, telling a surrealist tale about four people stuck in a railway station on Christmas Eve.
Graduate of the first edition of the Let's Go Digital! (LGD!) film workshop for teenagers, Luiza Pârvu is one of the newcomers in the Romanian Days. The Birthday, starring Adina Lucaciu (First of All, Felicia) and Sergiu Costache (Lord, Waves), edited by Luiza's LGD! and university colleague Letitia Stefanescu, is the second film done by a LGD! graduate to be selected in the Romanian Days competition.
