The New Europe Film Festival showcases the best feature and short films coming from countries that joined the European Union in 2004 and 2007. This year's films come from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Romania.
This year's New Europe Film Festival will show a selection of Romanian films: a block of six Romanian shorts in Edinburgh and Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' in London.
Programme
25 April, 4pm, Filmhouse Cinema, Edinburgh
- The Boxing Lesson (2007) by Alexandru Mavrodineanu A businessman from Bucharest takes his 12 years old son to boxing classes. But Vlad refuses to take the first training. To teach him a lesson, the father enters the boxing ring himself.
- Megatron (2008) by Marian Crisan Maxim lives with his mother in a village near Bucharest. It's Maxim birthday; he's turning 8. His mother takes him to Bucharest, to McDonald's. Maxim will do anything to meet his father who lives in the city.
- A Good Day For a Swim (2007) by Bogdan Mustata It's early in the morning and a 36 years old prostitute is waiting at a crossroad for the next client. A van stops and she's pulled inside. The vehicle descends on a deserted beach and three wild boys start playing adult power games.
- ife's hard (2008) by Gabriel Sarbu In one of Bucharest's endless traffic jams, a bag snatcher strikes up a strange relationship with his female victim.
- Waves (2007) by Adrian Sitaru A beautiful Western woman asks a Gypsy to watch her four-year-old child while she is taught to swim by a flirtatious married man. Then she disappears into the sea.
- The Yellow Smiley Face (2008) by Constantin Popescu A moving comedy about two parents who do not know anything about computers, but try to use Yahoo Messenger for chatting with their son in America.
Selected by Mihai Chirilov, director of TIFF (Transylvania International Film Festival).
6 May, 8.45pm, Barbican Centre, London
California Dreamin' (2007) by Cristian Nemescu A forceful drama that illustrates Romanians' fascination with the American dream. It was awarded the Un certain regard prize in Cannes 2007. President of the jury, Pascale Ferran, called it "far and above, the most lively and liberated film proposal I've seen in ten days here".
When: 25 April, 4 pm (Edinburgh) & 6 May, 8.45 pm (London)
Where: Filmhouse Cinema, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh, EH3 9BZ & Barbican, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Tickets: Edinburgh - from www.filmhousecinema.com, full price £4.80, concessions £3.20 and London - from www.barbican.co.uk, full price £9.50, concessions £7.50.
