Category: World of Culture

The New Year that Never Came, written and directed by Bogdan Mureșanu, was proposed on the list of films that will be considered for nomination at the European Film Academy awards, an event that celebrates the most important achievements of European cinema. The New Year that Never Came became the first Romanian debut feature film to win four awards at the Venice International Film Festival (including the Best Film in the Orizzonti section, the FIPRESCI Award for Best Film, offered by the jury of the International Federation of Film Critics, Bisato d’Oro 2024 Award for Best Screenplay), and took first place at the box office a few weeks after its release in Romania, overtaking major titles.

After the world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, the film was shown in Italy and at other events. Recently, the North American premiere of the film took place, after which The New Year that Never Came found itself in the selection of the Zurich International Film Festival, and was also screened in Germany. The fiction feature The New Year that Never Came completes the story of the short film The Christmas Present, one of the most appreciated Romanian titles, with 200 international selections and 72 awards. Winner of the Best European Short Film Award (at the European Film Academy Awards gala, 2019), the Gopo Award for Best Short Film (2019), and the Best Short Film Trophies at Berlin, Clermont-Ferrand, Cottbus, and TIFF , the short film directed and written by Bogdan Mureșanu stars Adrian Văncică, Ioana Flora and Luca Toma. The action of the film takes place on the evening of December 20, 1989, shortly before the fall of the Ceausescu dictatorship, when Marius, a 9-year-old child, reveals to his parents the contents of the letter sent to Grandfather Frost, and they realize that it includes a message very dangerous for everyone’s safety. Bogdan Mureșanu tells us why he chose to continue The Christmas Present, integrating it into the multistory narrative of The New Year that Never Came.

“I always had the impression that that short film was just a fragment of a more complex story. Ever since I filmed with Adrian Văncică, that means six years ago, it seemed to both of us that the story could be part of a longer narrative, and I, anyway, had a lot of stories in mind. And this project, the The New Year that Never Came, did not start with the The Christmas Present, but with the story of the demolition of the Uranus District. I was planning a feature film about this demolition initiated by Nicolae Ceaușescu in the ’80s, but I kept postponing this project. I postponed it because I didn’t know how to film it, because, obviously, Bucharest has changed a lot since then, and it was very hard to find suitable locations. In relation to The Christmas Present, I filmed that short story more as a test, and I was surprised by the success of the short, because in my mind it was always just a fragment. After I also wrote the film The Christmas Present, it took me some time to reach this type of multistory narrative, in which the characters meet, but without the meeting between them having consequences. The characters, as one critic who wrote about the film said, are like islands that would form an archipelago. I also thought about the fact that, if I keep debuting so late in the feature film, I should do it with something that is more complicated, and the two years of the pandemic gave me the necessary time to complicate things even more. For almost a year it was a construction site in my mind, I wrote two completely different versions of the script, there were actually two films, and in the end I opted for this one, which is maybe written in a slightly American way, but which, anyway, seems to me quite a contemporary way of telling stories, considering the success with the public and the critics.”

One of the main roles in The New Year that Never Came, that of Margareta Dincă, is played by the actress Emilia Dobrin, performer of over 30 roles in Romanian films and series, winner of the UNITER award for the best actress. Margareta Dincă’s house, located in the Uranus district of Bucharest, is to be demolished in order to build a new block of flats. It is actually one of the last remaining houses not demolished, and Margareta has the misfortune of having to leave her home very shortly before the Revolution. Emilia Dobrin spoke to RRI about the collaboration with the director Bogdan Mureșanu and about her role in The New Year that Never Came.

“The meeting with the director Bogdan Mureșan was extraordinary, in an instant what was supposed to be was connected between us, something very beautiful, and that’s how I ended up playing this emotional character in the film. For me, that period that the film discusses was and remains painful, very painful. I can say that both my brother and I were very marked by the injustices we experienced during communism. We came from Vălenii de Munte, we were not from Bucharest, and because of our unhealthy origins, – as they said at the time – our scholarships were suspended and our places in the dormitory were taken away. And our parents had no way to support us, those were very hard times. My brother and I were also very marked by the injustice that was done to us, and so we remained. I don’t want to make a boast out of this, but I didn’t want to be an ‘utecist’, that is, to join the Communist Youth Union, nor to be part of that yes-man system, as we called those in the party at that time.”

Adrian Văncică, Iulian Postelnicu, Mihai Călin, Nicoleta Hâncu, Andrei Miercure, Manuela Hărăbor, Ioana Flora and Ada Galeș complete the cast of the film The New Year that Never Came.

The 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival, hosted by theatres and various non-conventional spaces in Bucharest, turned into a true marathon of performances and many other cultural events. The theme of this edition was “Dramaturgies of the Possible” and was curated by Mihaela Michailov, Călin Ciobotari and Ionuț Sociu. The 31 Romanian performances selected for the festival – some of the most representative Romanian contemporary theatrical creations – were joined by related events, such as three performative and visual installations, 12 independent theater performances, ten educational performances, five conferences and debates, professional workshops, modules dedicated to established artists, book launches, radio theatre performances, but also a rich partner event – the Bucharest Scenography Biennale.

At the invitation of the National Theatre Festival and UNITER – the Romanian Theatre Union -, the Austrian Cultural Forum and its partners offered a complex program offline and online, coming with new approaches to the theme of the 34th edition of the National Theatre Festival. Andrei Popov, deputy director of the Austrian Cultural Forum, tells us what the exhibition “Only the violins remained – Alma and Arnold Rosé”, the extended presentation of the development of the VR HUMAN VIOLINS PRELUDE project, written and directed by Ioana Mischie, the performance UNION PLACE – A SHORT TRILOGY, the performance HOLY HYDRA @TIMIȘOARA and the two debates about performative projects have in common.

“The contribution of the Austrian Cultural Forum to the National Theatre Festival has grown with each edition and this year we have an extremely complex program. All these productions that I have proposed are related to a contemporary, innovative and highly socially involved way of doing performing arts, performance or theatre, and last but not least, virtual reality, because virtual reality is one of the ways in which we approached the performing arts. Always, in our collaboration with the National Theatre Festival, we take into account first of all the theme chosen by the curators of the festival. This year we set out to respond to that theme, Dramaturgies of the possible, proposed by the three curators – Mihaela Michailov, Călin Ciobotari and Ionuț Sociu.
What interested us the most was the openness to interdisciplinarity, but also the way in which dramaturgy becomes a decisive element of the show. In addition, we wanted to highlight the existing dialogue between Romanian and Austrian artists in the field of performing arts, a field in which there is very, very much collaboration. It was our desire to show publicly, given the visibility of the festival, how much creativity there is and how much things have evolved and continue to evolve in this field of theatre and performing arts in the dialogue between Austria and Romania.”

Artist Ioana Mischie’s project ”Human Violins: Prelude (Multi-Users Version)”, presented as part of the National Theatre festival had its world premiere in 2024 at Cannes Festival’s Immersive Competition, dedicated to virtual reality projects and as an absolute first introduced in the history of the event. ”Human Violins: Prelude (Multi-Users Version)” is an extended Virtual Reality experience, inspired from a true story, which invites us to reflect on the way we can preserve the most creative of the human legacies across the generations. Spectators watch the fictitious story of Alma, a lover of the violin, being offered the chance to play and prolong the legacy of her music.

Ioana Mischie: “Our project represented the first Romania-France co-production in the field of VR and we hope this participation in Cannes will also represent and open invitation extended to cultural decision-makers to invest in the field. It is an absolutely wonderful domain that can become a country brand, as in Romania we have very, very talented artists, a very advanced technological community and a very advanced technological infrastructure. Accordingly, we can excel in this domain if we invest appropriately. We’ve been delighted to find out this form of art is recognized and celebrated and to know, in turn, new possible collaborators in this field. Therefore, we hope for the good news to continue and for that to be just the beginning. Yet this beginning comes after 12 years in this field, that is why we hope to use this experience and develop it henceforth”.

The National Theatre Festival have also proposed to the public the Reading-Performances, which capitalized on varied dramaturgical formula, in accordance with the changes of today’s world, through the debate of texts from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Romania.

The National History Museum of Romania (NHMR) presents, starting in mid-September, a new exhibition: “Natural dyes. From museum scientific research to contemporary art”. The exhibition aims to capitalize on the results of scientific research and to value natural dyes as a resource in contemporary art, to create a connection between contemporary and traditional textiles through dyes, and to capitalize on the results of interdisciplinary research by making information available to the general public. About the concept of the exhibition, we spoke with its co-curator, Irina Petroviciu, chemical researcher:

“Through natural dyes we try to connect, on the one hand, museum textile pieces, museum heritage, so to speak, with traditional textiles and contemporary textiles, somehow making the results of scientific research available to the general public. Natural dyes are the main piece, the main concept of the exhibition. Everything is built around them. Through my concerns as a chemistry researcher, I try to study the Romanian textile heritage from the perspective of dye analysis. These studies are based on the fact that all the textiles we see in museum pieces until the late 19th century, when synthetic dyes became available, were dyed with natural dyes. Natural dyes, which can be extracted from plants, insects, fungi, mollusks or lichens, were originally used, each of them only locally. Later, some of them began to be traded, the beginning of trade being linked to historical events or geographical discoveries.”

What does the exhibition propose, from the point of view of natural dyes research?

“With the analytical techniques available today, we can identify natural dyes and the biological source they belong to, and help place historical pieces in context based on dye analysis. In the exhibition, on the one hand, we present natural dyes, characterizing them from different perspectives, on the one hand from the point of view of the structure, of the dyeing methodology, obviously this is related to the structure. Some dyes are more stable to the action of environmental factors, others less stable in museum textiles. Obviously, we will find the most stable ones. Also, in the exhibition you will be able to see textiles dyed with natural dyes. In addition to the story of the dyes in historical textile pieces, you will be able to find in the exhibition information about the dyes from plants that we come across in our daily life, and which could possibly also be used for dyeing. These are invasive plants. They are simply plants that we have, for example in the garden, using them, picking and using them as dyes we could practically have a more beautiful garden and at the same time, some naturally colored textile pieces. They are also dyes that we have in the leftovers that are obtained from household activities. It’s about avocado seeds, berries, dyes from pomegranate peels, onion skins are very well known and many others.”

Irina Petroviciu tells us what visitors to the “Natural dyes” exhibition at NHMR can see:

“In a first part we have liturgical textile pieces from the collection of the National History Museum of Romania, the National Art Museum of Romania and the Putna Monastery, mainly, which were characterized from the perspective of natural dyes. Another area of the exhibition is dedicated to traditional textiles. We wanted to see, through studies made on textile pieces from Romanian museum collections, to what extent dyes were still used at the end of the 19th century. The exhibition continues with the description of several recent projects dedicated to natural dyes, and they make the transition to contemporary art. Natural dyes are present in the contemporary world, on the one hand in new traditional textiles, but on the other hand, also in the creations of contemporary artists. We have examples of this work in the exhibition. So you must see the exhibition, because it is very difficult to describe. They are works by established artists, some of whom are used to working with natural dyes, others taking it as a challenge. And, likewise, there are works by young artists at the beginning of the road, who use natural dyes.”

At the end, Irina Petroviciu tells us when the exhibition can be visited and what other activities does MNIR propose:

“It was announced until the end of October, but will definitely be extended until the end of November. We are preparing events associated with the exhibition, and probably during November we will organize painting workshops.”

EXT. CAR. NIGHT, the second feature film directed and written by Andrei Crețulescu, stars four emblematic actors of the new wave who play multiple roles: Rodica Lazăr, Șerban Pavlu, Andi Vasluianu and Dorian Boguță. Consisting of three parts, filmed in sequence shots, EXT. CAR. NIGHT combines several genres and styles, building a story about how (NOT) to make a film – “A making-of with an air of absurd/postmodernist chronicle”, as the director notes. In the opinion of actor Şerban Pavlu, the film “is unique in all respects: the way it is written, edited, the cast of the film, which does several things, including my character.”

Here is Andrei Crețulescu.

“It’s a very Romanian film. Sure, people can say, but all Romanian films can be considered very Romanian. It’s true, but this one, although it may seem difficult or rambunctious, is also very retro, it’s also very ‘spoken word’, and that’s why I refer to this as “very Romanian”. It is a very talked about film, moreover, I have the feeling – already confirmed by the audience’s reaction, both at TIFF and at the premiere screenings – that it is a film that the Romanian-speaking audience can vibe with a little more. But obviously, when I said that it is Romanian, I did not mean that it is a film intended only for the public here. I said that it is very Romanian, because, as is already known, it is a very, very spoken word film. That’s why I think that the native Romanian audience has a huge advantage over viewers who are forced to read the subtitles, where you obviously lose almost half of the meaning of the dialogues. It’s also a difficult to impossible film to market, because no matter how much you want to put your finger on it, and say it fits into this genre, any possible classification will be wrong from the start, because there’s no way to include practically all the steps this movie walks on, like a ball in a match, if you will. That’s why there will be viewers who will see it as a thriller, others will see it as a comedy or satire, others will detect the meta-cinematic discourse. All these definitions and framings are correct. Actually, there is no perfect definition, but there is no wrong one, so to speak. It’s several movies in one. It’s a lot of movies in one.”

EXT. CAR. NIGHT is a bloody thriller that turns into its own “making of”, but also a conversation about film, about fear and fiction. It premiered during the Romanian Film Days at TIFF (Transilvania International Film Festival), and was recently launched in cinemas in the country.

Andrei Crețulescu.once again:

“Actually, initially I was planning a real thriller, a classic thriller, so to speak, a thriller with 10 characters who are stuck in a mountain cabin by the storm and who end up, for various reasons, killing each other. It was a very gory story, and sounded very good on paper as a script. But the pandemic came, and we had to rethink the whole enterprise. And beyond the pandemic, I also became a father, and I thought then that a movie in which people kill each other might not represent me at that moment. So I thought it would be more exciting, more challenging, to make a film about how a thriller is made, to make a film about some people who want to make a bloody thriller. So the original thriller somehow exists in this film, only it has a different perspective. On the other hand, I thought it would be simpler if instead of a film with ten actors in the cast we have a film with only four actors. But these four actors play about 12 characters in total. So I won and I didn’t win, so to speak. And it was much more difficult, because we somehow imposed on ourselves from the beginning this structure of composing the film from three large frames, to be cast in shot-sequence, i.e. without cutting. And that was hard for everyone on the team, except for me, let’s say. It’s hard for absolutely everyone, but at the same time it’s even more exciting because it’s more honest. With no cuts, everything that happens happens in front of you. Without cuts, you don’t have detailed shots, you don’t have close-ups. I, as the author of the film, do not condition your perspective, I do not constrain you – through editing – to whom or what to look at. You, the viewer, have a painting and you choose to look at what you think fascinates or intrigues you. That’s why the plan-sequence seems to me to be a somewhat more honest proposal in our very special relationship, director – spectator.”

Codruța Crețulescu, Vlad Rădulescu and Claudiu Mitcu are the producers of the film, from Kinosseur, Avanpost Media and Wearebasca. The image of the film is signed by Andrei Butică, the editing was done by Cătălin Cristuțiu, the sets and costumes by Mălina Ionescu. The sound engineer is Alexandru Dragomir, and Marius Leftărache signs the sound design. Andrei Crețulescu was noted by critics in 2015, when the short film RAMONA was awarded at Cannes, in the Semaine de la Critique section. His debut feature, CHARLESTON (2017), had its world premiere in the Locarno Competition, was screened in over 30 international festivals, and was a hit with audiences in Romania.

The best Romanian short film at the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival was designated “(In) the Circle”, by Andreea Parfenov. “WTF Luci!?”, directed by Paul Radu, is the short film to which the Anonimul Foundation awarded the “Ovidiu Bose Paştină” Award.

The 21st edition of the ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival, which took place in Sfântu Gheorghe, included two short film competitions – Romanian and international, a feature film competition, as well as film screenings outside the competitions, that were followed by meetings and dialogues between the filmmakers and the audience.

The horror comedy “WTF Luci”, the result of a creative exercise by the team from 111 FILM & Entertainment, directed by Paul Radu, premiered at this year’s Transilvania TIFF International Film Festival. It also participated in the “Șerban Ionescu” Theater and Film Festival and in the Romanian Film Nights in Iași. “WTF Luci” tells the darkly humorous story of a young man, played by actor Theo Costache. On a seemingly ordinary evening, Luci receives an old chest from his relatives, and after consuming some hallucinogenic mushrooms, the night takes an unexpected turn. What follows is a series of surprising events that turn the comedy into true horror. In addition to Theo Costache, the film also stars Lavinia Pele, as Dee, and Costel Cascaval, as Uncle’.

We spoke with Paul Radu about how the film was received, as his second short reel after OPT (2022), and about his intention to make an experimental film, using mostly horror and comedy genres.

“For me, first of all, it was a test, because I was very curious what the audience’s reaction would be. I mean, I can say that I was satisfied with the result, but I needed, so to speak, some confirmations. And I was primarily interested in the reaction of the audience, I was interested in what feedback I get from people who have seen the film, and I can say that I was satisfied. People loved it and we got all kinds of questions from viewers. As I said before, when I started this film I wanted to play with some cinematic genres, that was my intention. Then I wrote the story, the first draft of the script, which was about two and a half pages at first. I was more interested in experimenting through images than through dialogue. There isn’t muchy dialogue in the film. Yes, that’s what I wanted, to play with some genres, to try different cinematic styles! I was lucky, obviously, to have an amazing team that supported me and believed in this madness. And I had real professionals who were close to me in this endeavor, because it was a challenge. It was a challenge mostly due to the combination of genres I chose to play with, and it could have easily become an embarrassment. What we wanted, both myself and the team, was to be able to tell this story of Luci through cinematic language.”

The short film (In) theCircle, directed by Andreea Parfenov, is the winner of the Audience Award for “Best Romanian Short Film” at the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival, but it also enjoyed screenings at the Romanian Film Evenings (Iași), the Theater Festival and Film “ȘI” (Șerban Ionescu) and in Portugal, as part of “FEST (New Directors New Films Festival)”. Starring Ana Dumitrașcu, Ioana Flora, Ana Maria Pop, Ecaterina-Elena Lupu, the film “(In)the Circle” stars Laura, who, on a night trip, tries to escape for the umpteenth time from her toxic relationship.

Andreea Parfenov told us what the story of (In) the Circle came to life:

“This stage of writing was very long, the script underwent many changes. I went through a similar experience and the hardest thing was to find a way to fictionalize the story, because not all things that happen in reality are filmic and deserve to be told in these audio-visual terms. So, I had to find a formula to fictionalize this whole story that happened to me and translate it into an artistic act, that was the challenge. I was in the position of both characters, I was in the position of the character played by Ana Dumitrașcu, who has to leave, but also in the position of the friends who offer her help as much as they can at that moment, but they still need to focus on their own needs. I understood both points of view and somehow, I thought it was important to tell this story because it seems to me that we always have to pay attention to the people around us, believe them and be with them as much as we can. You have to have a lot of patience and gentleness when the people around you are going through such situations, because it is actually very difficult to break free from a vicious circle. And I don’t mean only a couple relationship, there can be all kinds of situations in our lives, situations from which it is very difficult for us to get out for different reasons, that’s why I think it’s important to be somehow more present and more aware of what happens to the loved ones.”

During the Retrospective of the 21st edition of the ANONIMUL International Independent Film Festival that took place in Bucharest, the public was able to preview the film “Three kilometers to the end of the world”, directed by Emanuel Pârvu, selected this year for the Competition Official of the Cannes Festival, where it was awarded the Queer Palm. Recently, the film has been awarded at the Sarajevo Film Festival with the festival’s grand trophy for Best Film and the Cineuropa Award. (MI)

Selected in the local competition of the 30th ASTRA International Documentary Film Festival, the documentary Mrs. Buică, directed by Eugene Buică, premiered in Romanian cinemas at the end of last year. A family flees communist Romania and gets to live the American Dream, but cannot escape the sins of the Balkan soul. Love, scandal, tragedy and the breakup of parents’ marriage, under the eyes of a son who documents everything. When in 1998 some of the members of the Buică family return for a short time from America (the adopted country) to their native country, Romania, Mrs. Buică playfully attacks her husband, making mean comments. Their son Eugene manages to capture the couple’s dysfunctionality as their marriage falls apart.

 

 

In 2000, Eugene manages to film professional interviews with each of his parents in New York. Mrs. Buică marks an important moment in Buică’s career, which is distinguished by outstanding achievements as an actor, director, writer and pedagogue. The documentary captures images filmed over 24 years in Romania and America. Although he has worked with many actors as a teacher of acting, Eugene Buică says he has rarely met better actors than his parents. In addition, through the documentary Mrs. Buica he wanted to tell their story.

 

 

I realized very quickly, in 1998, when I started working on this film, that these people – my parents – are loved by the camera and the camera, in turn, loves them. That is why, in a very short time, they forget that they are in front of a camera, that they are being filmed. It’s why they don’t even self-censor when they speak. They became very natural in a very short time, that’s why I said that it was like I was working with real actors, with some extremely dynamic performers, who were telling a story. I’ve been asked by people if this movie helped me in a therapeutic way but I didn’t do it for that purpose, I’m fine. The idea was to tell a good story cinematically, to make a good film. If I had found a better story then, in the late 90s, I would have made another documentary. Indeed, it is a story related to my family, but that is not why I chose to tell it. I chose to make this film because it has a dramatic effect, people laugh, people cry, that’s the idea. I wanted to tell a good story, not to bore people who come to the cinema for two hours. I think you have to give the viewers something that touches them somehow.

 

 

Eugene Buică was born in Bucharest, and at the age of 10 he moved with his family to New York. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he graduated from The Neighborhood Playhouse In N.Y., where he had the legendary Sanford Meisner as his acting teacher. As an actor, he had roles in over 50 plays, films, television series, commercials. Notable stage appearances include The Sound of Music on Broadway, Coriolanus at McCarter Theater in Princeton or The Swan at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. In terms of films, we mention Glass Necktie, The Group, Merchants of Venus, Float, and most recently Jolt (with Kate Beckingsale), and as series: ER, Goode Behavior, Days of Our Lives, or Becker.

 

 

Making the documentary Mrs. Buică, Eugene Buică tells the honest, tense story of his parents which, with all the misunderstandings and arguments between the two, he likens to a symphony.

 

 

I thought of this film as a debt to my parents. I know it’s a risky story but I chose to tell it anyway, after all important things contain an element of risk. And I can say that I feel very good that I made this documentary, as I said, there are always risks wheter it’s theater, cinema, directing, writing, art in general. Besides, everyone will have an opinion and there will always be people who won’t like what you’ve done. But what makes me happy about this documentary is that so far, most people who have seen the film and written reviews have expressed extremely favorable opinions. And if I didn’t meet everyone’s expectations, it’s no problem, it can happen, I don’t mind that. I think it would have been disappointing to make a conventional movie that wouldn’t upset or intrigue anyone, a boring movie where my parents only talk nicely about each other. I could have done that, but it wouldn’t have been my story or their story.

 

 

Between the years 2000 and 2019, Eugene Buică was the artistic director and founder of The Acting Corps Academy, which benefited both the American and the international community, training a number of over 4700 actors. (MI)

 

The National Radiophonic Theater has launched on www.eteatru.ro a new collection of sound performances, compiled on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of Radio Romania, on November 1st. The collection includes the best radio productions of all time, based on important texts of national and universal dramaturgy. The performances bear remarkable directorial signatures and are performed by important Romanian actors, who have permanently collaborated with the National Radiophonic Theatre. “Radio Romania 95. Collectable Performances” collects, on the website www.eteatru.ro, representative titles from 8 decades of theatre radio, starting from the 50s of the last century. The oldest show preserved on tape was made in 1951: “Hagi Tudose” by Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea, directed by Ion Şahighian, with Nicolae Bălţățeanu in the leading role. Here is Attila Vizauer, editor-in-chief of the National Radiophonic Theatre.

 

 

“This play is in the new collection were bringing to radio theater listeners. Recordings are grouped chronologically, and they belong to eight decades of radio theater. We start with the 50s, years in which important actors of the Romanian theater were at the radio microphone and gave outstanding performances. One of the gretest actors of that time was Radu Beligan, who had a close connection with the radio theater until the end of his life. I remember that he was in his 90s and he still came to the studios of the Radiophonic Theater to perform roles in the shows we produced. And because we are talking about those extraordinary generations who left their mark on our culture, I would also mention Sică Alexandrescu, a famous director of the 50s, who together with actors like Alexandru Giugaru, Grigore Vasiliu Birlic, Evira Godeanu and many others gave memorable performances. The collection continues with the 60s and 70s, decades that also enjoyed formidable generations of actors. There are also the years when the great director Liviu Ciulei staged great performances, which were then taken over by the radio theater. Im thinking, for example, of “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare, an extraordinary show of the 60s, which benefits from the radio adaptation of Mihai Zira, a great radio theater director. The cast includes, among others, the great Victor Rebengiuc and Clody Bertola. It is interesting that in this show, “As you like it”, there is a monologue by Jacques the Melancolic performed by Liviu Ciulei himself, who was part of the cast. Its a collection of performances that are worth listening to because they have tremendous theatrical value.”

 

 

Another collection recently launched by the National Radiophonic Theater is “Radio Romania 95. 95 years of Radio – 95 years of literature. Radio adaptations of world literature”. The new collection of radio performances, launched at the Gaudeamus Book Fair, includes sound transpositions of famous titles from national and universal literature (theatre and radio dramatized prose). The radio productions, based on Romanian and foreign books published in the last 95 years, are grouped in links, dedicated to the 30s, 40s, 50s. Attila Vizauer has more:

 

 

“We wanted to be present in the extraordinary space of the Gaudeamus Fair with a radio theater collection dedicated to books, literary masterpieces created over the years. Anyone interested in listening to the radio versions of the great Romanian literary works, but also universal ones, can access this collection that was launched with the opening of the Gaudeamus Book Fair: “Radio Romania 95. 95 years of Radio – 95 years of literature. Radio adaptations of world literature”. If you are interested in discovering a radio version of the famous novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, you can find it on www.eteatru.ro. In the same collection, there are adaptations of the works of Lucian Blaga or Camil Petrescu, to cite a few examples. They are shows that the radio theater can offer because it has a very rich sound library and has a selection of important titles, masterpieces of Romanian and universal literature.”

 

 

Liviu Rebreanu, Mihail Sadoveanu, Mircea Eliade, Tudor Mușatescu, Mihail Sebastian, Marin Sorescu, Marin Preda, Matei Vișniec, Ema Stere, , Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Mann, Jean-Paul Sartre, Eugene ONeill, Tennessee Williams, Mario Vargas Llosa are just some of the authors you can find on the www.eteatru.ro platform, in original directorial visions, featuring important actors of the stage and radio theater. (MI)

 

 

Bogdan Dumitrache, one of the most talented and awarded actors of the new wave, is the lead actor in two recent films: “Good Guys Go to Heaven”, directed by Radu Potcoava and “Three Kilometers to the End of the World”, directed by Emanuel Pârvu. The latter received the Queer Palm 2024 of the Cannes Film Festival. Since its inception in 2010, the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm has rewarded memorable films that reflect the diversity and importance of the themes addressed. The award was handed to director Emanuel Pârvu by filmmaker Lukas Dhont who also read the jury’s motivation: “A harsh and precious breakdown of a system of violence. His perspective slowly reveals the patriarchal world in which our characters grew up where the space to fully exist is made impossible by deeply rooted idea structures. In this mesmerizing film, people seem to be held by strings that pull them away from the light, until some of them begin to break free.”

 

Along with director Emanuel Pârvu, actors Bogdan Dumitrache, Valeriu Andriuță, Ciprian Chiujdea and Ingrid Micu-Berescu also walked the red carpet. If the Romanian premiere of the film “Three Kilometers to the End of the World” will take place at TIFF Transilvania International Film Festival (June 14-24, Cluj-Napoca), “Good Guys Go to Heaven” has already been seen by the Romanian audience. In this romantic comedy, Bogdan Dumitrache plays the role of a man who dies and ends up in Paradise, on a deserted beach, where he reunites with Laura, the girl he was in love with in high school.

 

Bogdan Dumitrache told us more about his film career, about how he chooses his roles and also about the mark that the New Romanian Wave left on him: “Good Guys Go to Heaven is a film that asks the audience some questions in an accessible, yet deep way. At the same time, it is a film that tries to bring the audience back to the theaters, inviting them to an escape from this reality that often does not suit us. I could say that it is also a film that uses an American recipe which it tries to adapt in a Romanian context. Radu Potcoava is an artist, and his film is an honest attempt to use the cinematic language to address in a pleasant way an uncomfortable and unpleasant problem like death. In terms of how I choose scripts, the first read is essential, it’s when I filter the story through my lens. It is when I understand if there are problems, if the character is coherent and his actions are normal, natural. This is the first filter I apply. When I read the script of Good Guys Go to Heaven, written by Radu Potcoava, I really liked this logic of the character, which is so alive and human. He does not want to accept that he has died, and moreover, he cannot believe that he has arrived in another world that is so similar to the one he just left. Even the mistakes, and the small understandings that can ease his situation are about the same. So I can say that this film is a nice bet to bring the audience back to the theaters, a bet that I accepted. I think that the presence of this new type of cinema that has appeared on the market – a film for the audience, as we call it – has managed to bring people back to the theaters, and I think that’s a very good thing. It is wonderful that this has been achieved, that people come to see Romanian films, it is also a very pleasant way to spend time with family and friends, so I hope we can restore this social habit of going to the cinema.”

 

 

Bogdan Dumitrache is the winner of three Gopo trophies: in 2011 for “Portrait of the Fighter in his Youth” (directed by Constantin Popescu), in 2012 for “Best Intentions” (Adrian Sitaru) and in 2019 for “Pororoca” (directed by Constantin Popescu Popescu). For “Poroca”, the actor also won the Best Actor Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The roles in “Double” (directed by Catrinel Dănăiață) and “Dog Man” (directed by Ștefan Constantinescu) brought him two more nominations.

 

 

From his filmography of over 30 roles, most of them lead ones, Bogdan Dumitrache believes that the role in “Portrait of the Fighter in His Youth” was essential, and he says he is lucky that he was formed with the new wave of Romanian cinema: ”I find this role vital, because I rather relate to the times I played and the times I didn’t, than to the roles I had. I started acting ten years after graduating from college and in Portrait of the Fighter in his Youth  I had my first role of substance. And even though it was a supporting role, I managed to create a living and authentic character. It was also the role for which I got my first award, and after that other roles and opportunities to play and develop myself emerged, to show others what I can do. Related to the New Wave in Romanian cinema, I consider myself lucky to grow as an actor together with this movement, to be lucky enough to make a film at the very moment when Cristi Puiu’s film Stuff and Dough came out. I was very happy at that time that my friend,  actor Dragoș Bucur, was cast in the film and was involved in this new movement, which wanted to change things and really did. I am excited and grateful.”

 

Bogdan Dumitrache is also one of the founders of the independent Apollo 111 Theater and played in the HBO productions “In drift” (2010) and “Ruxx” (2022).