Due to the current international situation, the 2020 edition of Arava International Film Festival will take place online, between November 5-14, 2020.
This year’s program will focus on the work of important international directors who have been guest of the festival at its previous editions. Following the great success that the Romanian cinematography has had in Israel during the years and with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv, films from two successful and well-known Romanian directors, Cristian Mungiu and Corneliu Porumboiu, will be presented in the festival.
The films are available for online viewing between November 10-14, 2020 and November 14-15, 2020, only in Israel.
The Whistlers (Co-production Romania- France- Germany, 2019, 97 minutes)
Tickets: https://www.aravaff.co.il/en/The_Whistlers
(limited
number of tickets)
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu
Cast: Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazăr, Agustí Villaronga
Cristi is a seasoned Romanian policeman who also nurtures close, not to
mention, illegal, ties with the local mafia. One day, Gilda, a mysterious young
woman, recruits him for an unusual job with the intention of releasing her
boyfriend from prison. She takes him to a faraway island to learn the
“whistlers” language—a secret, centuries-old tongue, based on whistles. Cristi
finds himself trapped between his suspicious police friends, the mafia, which
has no intention of releasing Gilda’s boyfriend, and his feelings for the
beautiful operator.
Corneliu Porumboiu’s film is a pulsing, precise work that portrays the powerful, but delicate, relationship that slowly develops between these two unsuspecting lovers.
Graduation (Romania, 2016, 86 minutes)
Tickets: https://www.aravaff.co.il/en/Graduation (limited number of tickets)
Director:
Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Adrian Titieni, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Rares Andrici
Romeo is a doctor who raises his daughter Eliza to be honest and studious so
she may, having graduated, leave and find a better future for herself. His plan
almost works, until one day, before Eliza's final exam, an incident happens
that rocks her life and threatens her future. Now, Romeo stands at a crossroads
- there are ways to solve the situation, but at what cost?
Police, adjective (Romania, 2009, 115 minutes)
Tickets: https://www.aravaff.co.il/en/Police_Adjective (limited number of tickets)
Director:
Corneliu Porumboiu
Cast: Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Ion Stoica
Corneliu Porumboiu’s second feature film facetiously pretends to be a police story. As a matter of fact, it is but whoever will see only that and nothing else, will miss the mordant satire and the subtle irony the writer/director infuses in all his scenes, from the first and particularly to the last one. The plot that requires Cristi, a police detective, to shadow a 16 years old boy suspected not only of smoking but also of dealing pot, is there to confirm this is a police investigation. Cristi’s refusal to arrest the boy for what is barely a misdemeanor but, once brought to justice, could destroy his life, is in strict conflict with the instructions of his chief, who stands by the letter of the law. And in the famous final scene of the film, with an open dictionary to enlighten them, the lead characters of the picture discuss the actual meaning of words, and through them depict the true conceptions that mold the society we live in.
4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days (Romania, 2007, 113 minutes)
Tickets: https://www.aravaff.co.il/en/4_Months_3_Weeks_and_2_Days (limited number of tickets)
Director:
Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean, Luminiţa
Gheorghiu, Adi Carauleanu
Awarded The Golden Palm in Cannes 2007, Cristian Mungiu’s film has been considered by many as the obvious representative of the Romanian New Wave. Mungiu’s story, a combination of black realism and fearsome portrait of life in Romania under the Ceausescu regime, which, among other things, strictly forbade abortions, spins the tale of a young woman desperate to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy and her energetic girlfriend who comes to her help, finds the illegal abortionist willing to rid her of her problem for a respectable price, and of all the troubles involved in the process, which throw a grim, unflattering, often shocking light on that period.
This year the Arava Film Festival will offer an online edition, screening leading films of contemporary world-class productions, as well as a rich repertoire of great films from the past, as part of a tribute to all the filmmakers who have supported the Festival in recent years. As part of the tribute, there will be screened additional films, created by each of the directors, alongside the fantastic films that have already been screened at the Festival during the years. These additional series of fantastic films are timeless productions.
Festival website: http://www.aravaff.co.il/en
