The Flower Bridge – Podul de flori
Romania/Germania 2008
Dir.: Thomas Ciulei
Pro.: Thomas Ciulei
Sc.: Thomas Ciulei
Cam.: Thomas Ciulei
Ed.: Alexandra Gulea
Music: Marin Cazacu
Festivals: Transylvania, Sarajevo
With: Costica Ahir, Maria Ahir, Alexandra Ahir, Alexie Ahir
Source: Ciulei Films, Munich
87 min., Romanian, English subtitles
Thomas Ciulei's fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the life of a farm family in Moldova takes us from winter through springtime, as Costica Ahir raises his two children at home, with his wife away at a job in Italy and farm prices threatening to drop.
Moldova is the poorest country in Europe. Its principal export is its people, most notably as sex workers in Western Europe and the Middle East. This family is not the poorest there. Yet even for Costica, life is an endless struggle, a perennial twist on the myth of Sisyphus.
Ciulei's film moves with the rhythms of daily life, as his camera shifts between the stark interiors of the simple house and the gradual warming of the landscape outside. Days of monotony are punctuated by calls from Italy. Avoiding aesthetic flourishes, The Flower Bridge is an unadorned portrait of a family living on the edge.
Thomas Ciulei was born in Romania in 1965 and studied photography in New York. He went on to study filmmaking at Munich Film School and New York University. The Flower Bridge won a number of awards, including Best Romanian Feature Film at the 2008 Transylvania Festival.
Selected filmography: Gratian ('95), Face Mania ('97), Asta E ('01).
Schedule
20:00 14/10/08 Tikotin
18:00 20/10/08 Tikotin
The Rest is Silence – Restul e tăcere
Romania 2007
Dir.: Nae Caranfil
Pro.: Cristian Comeaga
Sc.: Nae Caranfil
Cam.: Marius Panduru
Ed.: Dan Nanoveanu
Music: Laurent Couson
Festivals: Locarno, Thessaloniki
Cast: Marius Florea Vizante, Ovidiu Niculescu, Mirela Zeta, Ioana Bulca
Source: Romanian Film Centre, Bucharest
140 min., Romanian and French, English subtitles
Bucharest, 1911. Grigore Ursaru, a nineteen year old actor thrilled with the emergence of the cinema, decides to become a director and make The War of Independence, a reconstruction of the 1877 struggle between the Romanians, Russians, and the Turks, which led to Romania achieving its independence. To realize this highly ambitious project to make "the longest film ever produced", he wages an ideological, political and familial campaign to prove cinema has a promising future and is about to become an art in its own right.
"The Rest Is Silence comes like a breath of fresh… Lively, witty widescreen costumer, about the making of the country's first feature-length movie, is an intelligent crowd-pleaser made with affection for its characters and era" (Derek Elley, Variety).
Nae Caranfil was born in Bucharest in 1960. He graduated from Bucharest's Academy of Theater and Cinema in 1984. He began by making shorts, which won prizes at several international festivals, then went on to write numerous screenplays. Caranfil made his feature debut in 1993. The Rest Is Silence was screened in competition at the 2007 Locarno festival.
Selected filmography: Don't Lean Out the Window ('93), Asphalt Tango ('96), Dolce far niente ('98), Philanthropy ('01).
Schedule
10:00 18/10/08 Panorama_2
09:00 20/10/08 Panorama_1
More information
http://www.haifaff.co.il
