H.E. Mr. Andrei Muraru, The Ambassador of Romania to the United States
A Celebration of the Romanian Talent in the Nation’s Capital
With a world premiere – “Another Lottery Ticket” – and an U.S. premiere – “Freedom” – along with 4 other films already internationally awarded, our Romanian Film Festival (RFF) in Washington, D.C. reaffirms its value as the most important Romanian cultural cinematographic event in the United States.
Romanian film industry became very well known worldwide starting with the 2000s when a real revolution in realism began. Shortly, cinephiles across the globe became familiar with the overwhelming, uncompromising and uncomfortable realism of the New Romanian Cinema. Meanwhile, new generations of directors appeared which tackles topics reminiscent of what has remained in the history of cinema as the Romanian New Wave. Recent Romanian films continue to be appreciated by critics and to receive important international awards.
I am honored that the Embassy of Romania to the United States, together with the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York can bring to the newest and most appreciated Romanian movies, here, in the American Capital.
Last but not least, the festival also represents an opportunity to celebrate the Romanian talent, this being the leitmotiv of our Embassy’s activity this year. I strongly believe that the Romanian movies can be real ambassadors for my country, the cultural dimension of the friendship between Romania and the United States being full of dynamism, creativity and diversity.
Cinema as People-To-People Diplomacy
Romanian cinema is more present than ever in North America, and this is not by chance. Expanding in scope and ambition year after year, The Romanian Film Festival in Washington has become the centerpiece of an unprecedented promotional effort, which also includes several Romanian film festivals in Seattle, Minneapolis, Arizona and New York City, as well as constant selections at major American festivals and special projects, such as the recent sweeping retrospective of Romanian film in Toronto. We, together with our Embassy to the U.S., are proud to have contributed to the success of many of these important projects, and we hope that our management, financial, and marketing support will be even more substantial in the years to come.
We will continue to put an ever greater emphasis on the promotion of Romanian cinematic creativity because Romanian film remains the most spectacular and impactful ingredient of Romanian cultural diplomacy, anywhere in the world. Fortunately, the great aesthetic "revolution" of the mid-2000s, which took critics and audiences by storm, has lost none of its creative force. Romanian cinema still has many stories to tell, and it tells them captivatingly and realistically, in a language that is as much its own as it is universal. This festival is an invitation to discover them and to enjoy them!
Dorian Branea - Director, The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York
Mihai Fulger - Festival Curator
Revolution and Evolution
Is there anything we do not know about the Romanian Revolution and that deserves to be revealed through a cinematic work? With Freedom, his most accomplished film so far, Tudor Giurgiu proves that the answer is positive. Seventeen years after Radu Muntean’s The Paper Will Be Blue, to which Freedom pays homage, Giurgiu stimulates reflection on the media-induced paranoia that gripped most people during the euphoric and perplexing days of December 1989.
Romanian cinema has evolved significantly during this period, and the selection we have put together for you bears witness to the diverse approaches film directors have taken towards local and regional social issues. Andrei Tănase’s Day of the Tiger and Mihai Mincan’s To the North are powerful dramas descending from, and tempering with, the realistic formula imposed in 2005 by Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu. On the other hand, Paul Negoescu (Men of Deeds) and Bogdan Mirică (Boss) reinterpreted the conventions of the Hollywood crime thriller, mixing them with either dark comedy or neo-noir ingredients. Negoescu’s latest directorial endeavor, a sequel to his 2016 box-office hit, Two Lottery Tickets, is simply and heartfully a hilarious comedy, which demonstrates the new Romanian filmmakers’ openness towards the audience. Their grave topics may be similar to those of their predecessors (poverty and migration, adulteries and marital crises, hold-ups and murders, etc.), but these films are also meant to delight and entertain.