The Flying Shepherd / Ciobanul Zburator (2008)

Director: Catalin Musat
Screenwriter: Catalin Musat
Running time: 26 min.

screening co-presented by

Shepherds generally have a hard and quiet life, walking their sheep flock over green hills with only the blue sky above their heads, away from the turbulent civilization. So is Jean and his fellow shepherds, Mihail and Patru found by the filming crew in Sibiel, doing daily duties near their sheep pasture. So far so good but some nifty Germans build a noisy airfield near the quiet sheep farm.
It’s an encounter between cultures, which becomes a detonator for a surreal kind of humour while embodying a great sense of freedom.

Awards / Festivals
- Special Mention (Locarno Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (DokMa Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Festival Dei Popoli) 2008

** Q & A session with director Catalin Musat to follow screening.

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Don’t Get Me Wrong / Nu Te Supara, Dar… (2007)

Director: Adina Pintilie
Screenwriter: Adina Pintilie
Running time: 50 min.

screening co-presented by

‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ is a brilliantly composed, unobtrusive documentary revealing the day to day lives of some of the patients in a Romanian psychiatric institution. Patients debate the existence of God and supernatural powers, repeatedly asking ‘how do you stop the rain?’ Others move stones every day or spend hours in the strange, ambient ‘entertainment room.
Blatantly absurd actions get a second meaning which is deeply emotional. The only way to escape the essential absurdity of this existence is through love.

Awards / Festivals
- Golden Dove, Best Documentary (DOK Leipzig) 2007
- Filmmakers of the present Competition (Locarno Int’l Film Festival) 2007
- Best of Fests (IDFA – Int’l Documentary Festival Amsterdam) 2007
- Best Woman Director (Int’l Film Festival of Contemporary Cinema) 2008
- Official Selection (Documenta Spain) 2008
- Official selection (Montpellier Int’l Film Festival) 2007

A Good Day For A Swim / O Zi Buna De Plaja (2007)

Director: Bogdan Mustata
Screenwriter: Catalin Mitulescu
Cast: Florin Sinescu, Okan Kaya, George Hoffman, Cerasela Iosifescu, Marian Ghenea
Running time: 10 min.

It’s early in the morning and three young delinquents, who have just escaped from reform school, are driving along in a van.  A 36 year-old prostitute is waiting at a crossroad for the next client. The van stops and she’s pulled inside. The vehicle descends on a deserted beach and the three wild boys start playing adult power games.

Awards / Festivals
- Best Live Action Short (Palm Springs Int’l Film Society) 2007
- Golden Bear (Berlin Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official selection (Roma Int’l Film Festival) 2007
- Official selection (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2008

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Thursday / Joi (2007)

Director: Hadrian Marcu
Screenwriter: Hadrian Marcu
Cast: Toma Cuzin, Mihaela Pintileasa
Running time: 30 min.

She is an ordinary worker in a towel factory. At the end of a working day she accepts the proposal of a fellow worker to drive her home. When they reach her house, he comes in. They have sex. In spite of this they don’t really connect and nothing serious seems to come of their encounter. They end up spending the night apart, alone. Just another Thursday that could have made a difference but didn’t.

Awards / Festivals
- Official selection (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official selection (Cinema-Jove, Valencia Int’l Film Festival) 2008

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The Boxing Lesson / Lectia De Box (2007)

Director: Alexandru Mavrodineanu
Screenwriter: Alexandru Mavrodineanu, Catalin Mitulescu
Cast: Bogdan Dumitrache, Vlad Voda, Alexandru Manea, Nicolae Modrogan
Running time: 12 min.

Victor, a businessman from Bucharest, cannot stand by while his 12-year-old son gets beaten up at school, and decides to take him for boxing lessons. When the boy refuses to enter the ring, Victor enters the ring himself.

Awards / Festivals
- Official selection (New York Film Festival) 2007
- Official Selection (Sapporo Int’l Short Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Jerusalem Film Festival) 2008

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Alexandra (2008)

Director: Radu Jude
Screenwriter: Augustina Stanciu, Andrei Butica, Radu Jude
Cast: Mimi Branescu, Oana Ioachim, Alexandra Pascu, Serban Pavlu
Running time: 25 min.

Tavi, a man in his late thirties, discovers that Alexandra, his 4 years old daughter, is not calling him “Dad” anymore.

Awards / Festivals
- Short film prize (Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema) 2007
- Official selection (Claremon-Ferrand Short Film Festival) 2007
- Official selection (Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival) 2008

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Lineman’s Cabin / Canton (2005)

Director: Constantin Popescu
Screenwriter: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Petre Nicolae, Nicodim Ungureanu, Mihai Constantin, Ioan Gyuri Pascu
Running time: 30 min.

Two railroad men are living in a lineman’s cabin. Nothing to do, the days are the same, one after another. Alone in the middle of nowhere. One night, though, a stranger has an accident on the beach, nearby. An accident that would forever change everything…

Awards / Festivals
- Official selection (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2005

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Sandpit #186 / Balastiera #186 (2006)

Director: Adina Pintilie, George Chiper
Screenwriter: Adina Pintilie, George Chiper
Cast: Gabriel Spahiu, Richard Bovnoczki
Running time: 30 min.

One ordinary day on the outskirts of an industrial city. A deserted sandpit. A secluded inhabitant. A strange visitor. Life will never be the same ever again.

Awards / Festivals
- Critic’s Prize (CineMAiubit Int’l Student Film Festival) 2006
- Official Selection (Rio de Janeiro Int’l Student Film Festival) 2007
- Official Selection (Warszawa Int’l Film Festival) 2007
- Official Selection (Transylvania International Film Festival) 2007

“The Unveiling of Contemporary Romanian Cinema”

Inspired by the primacy of things present and organized by the ToRo Arts Group with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute, romaniancinemaNOW: The 2nd Annual Toronto-Romanian Film Festival will be running from February 13th to the 15th (2009) and will emphasize the extent to which “things peripheral,” often manifesting themselves on the borders of the mainstream and the commercial, continue to inspire a less-ironic, less-tragic and less-miserable understanding of the idiosyncrasies of the everyday.

Screenings will be held at:

Innis Town Hall – 2 Sussex Ave
*click for map

Bloor Cinema – 526 Bloor St.  (West)
*click for map

*click on each day for full program & film info
Friday, February 13 – Opening Night
19:00 – Opening Night – Bloor Cinema
23:00 – Opening Night Reception – TBA

Saturday, February 14 – Doc. Day – documentary screenings co-presented by
12:00 – Shorts Programme 1 – Innis Town Hall
15:00 – Doc.Day Shorts 1 – Innis Town Hall
18:00 – Doc.Day Shorts 2 – Innis Town Hall
21:00 – Doc.Day Feature – Bloor Cinema

Sunday, February 15 – Indie/Debuts. Day
12:00 – Shorts Programme 2 – Innis Town Hall
15:00 – Indie / Debut Feature 1 – Innis Town Hall
18:00 – Indie / Debut Feature 2 – Innis Town Hall
21:00 – Indie / Debut Feature 3 – Bloor Cinema

Tickets

Advance tickets ($8 student, $12 adult), as well as day and festival passes will be available until February 1st, 2009, at the UofT Tix box office, located at 7 Hart House Circle, by visiting the UofT Tix website, at www.uofttix.ca, or by calling the box office directly at 416-978-8849.

After February 1st, tickets will be $10 for students and $15 for adults, day and festival passes also reflecting this change in price.

PROGRAM
* Please be advised that ToRo Arts Group reserves the right to modify and/or alter the evening’s program
so as to meet all necessary legal and copyright requirements. All changes made will arrive with due noti-
fication.