Twenty-two first and second feature films have been selected for the 22nd Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF). The event takes place from June 9th to 18th in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Twelve of those selected films are in the official competition. Spain is represented this year by two films, Alberto Gastesi’s Stillness in the Storm and Upon Entry by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vasquez. The multi award-winning Croatian film, The Uncle by David Kapac and Andrija Mardesic, is also in this selection.
“Although inevitably they show burning social issues (class differences, inter-ethnic conflicts, migrations, drug abuse, prostitution, etc.),” explains Mihai Chirilov, the festival’s artistic director, “these film-makers have achieved something increasingly rare in today’s cinema, they’re not abusing those issues. With admirable economy of means they’re creating far-reaching, subversive stories with sophisticated narratives – their real targets are elsewhere.”
As for the documentary competition, What’s Up Doc?, 10 feature films are in the running for the Best Film Award. Presented in this section, Elena Rebeca Carini’s Italian-Romanian co-production The Land You Belong is about a woman’s return to Romania having been adopted in the 1990’s and grown up in Italy. The film traces her search for her biological mother.
Sources: Film New Europe, TIFF
