TIFF.23: The First Episode of the new season of House of the Dragon and Other Premiering Series in the Coming Up Next section

Attendees of the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (June 14-24, 2024, Cluj-Napoca) will have the opportunity to watch the first episodes or complete seasons of new series, presented as national premieres in the Coming Up Next section. Highlights include the first episode of the second season of House of the Dragon, the prequel to the phenomenal Game of Thrones series, and a documentary miniseries about Nicolae Ceaușescu. 

House of the Dragon (r. Alan Taylor, USA, 2024), an HBO Original production that will be available on the Max streaming platform, needs no introduction. Despite the seemingly insurmountable success of Game of Thrones, the prequel’s first episode was viewed by over 10 million people on its premiere day. Hardcore fans need no further recommendation, and those who haven't seen it yet have time to catch up with George R. R. Martin's universe before TIFF.23, where the first episode of the second season will have its absolute premiere in the cinema.

In three episodes, the documentary series Comrade: The Making, Glory and Unmaking of a Dictator (r. Trevor Poots, Romania, 2024) traces the fate of Nicolae Ceaușescu, from his childhood to his rise as the most powerful man in communist Romania. Besides archival footage and historical reconstructions, it includes numerous interviews with those who knew him closely, to create as honest a portrait as possible. A Chainsaw Film Productions and Pro TV production.  

Filmed in distressing black and white, 1286 (r. Alisher Utev, Kazakhstan, 2023) tells the story of a surgeon who is kidnapped and deported to a labor camp, where he struggles for survival and to maintain his humanity.

The action in Milky Way (r. Vasilis Kekatos, Greece, 2023) takes place in a mountain town where residents oscillate between frustration and the desire to escape. The protagonist is Maria, a high school student with aspirations of becoming a dancer, whose plans are thwarted when she becomes pregnant.

Renars, a rebellious young man trying to escape the strict rules of late 1970s communist Latvia, gets a job as a costume designer in a theater troupe and falls in love with a Finnish director. His adventure truly begins after he comes under the scrutiny of authorities, who commit him to an asylum. There, he starts an illegal jeans factory. Appropriately, the series is called Soviet Jeans (r. Stanislas Tokalovs, Teodora Markova, Latvia, 2024).

Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calo are two of the most well-known Spanish actors, and together they have created successful series. Their latest, The Messiah (La mesías, Spain, 2023), is the story of two brothers trying to overcome the traumas left by their upbringing under their fanatically religious mother.

All and Eva (r. Johanna Runevad, Sweden, 2024) is a delightful romantic comedy about a 40-year-old woman who has never grown up in love but desires a child. After choosing a sperm donor, she fears he might be a psychopath, but discovers that the truth is quite the opposite.

All and Eva is screened at TIFF.23 with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Romania.