It’s that time of the year again, this time for the 2nd Annual Toronto-Romanian Film Festival, and we need YOU!

WHEN: This year the event is taking place February 13th -15th and we are looking for eager volunteers who are able to donate some of their time to this cultural experience.

WHAT: Volunteer duties will include event set-up, ticket booth, or security.

YOU GET: Each volunteer will receive a meal, and a pair of tickets to a screening they are not volunteering for. This is an amazing opportunity to get involved in the Romanian community, the art of film, or both!

For more information on the event itself, please click here. If you, or anyone are interested, please e-mail your availabilities to alice.madolciu@toroartsgroup.com . We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will be a part of this momentous event!

Thank you!
The ToRo Team

Hooked / Pescuit Sportiv (2008)

Director: Adrian Sitaru
Screenwriter: Adrian Sitaru
Cast: Adrian Titieni, Ioana Flora, Maria Dinulescu
Running time: 84 min.

The debut feature by Romanian director Adrian Sitaru – already acclaimed for his short films – follows the story of a young couple whose lives are turned so completely upside down over the course of a few hours that they reach a point of no return.
Mihai is a stressed-out teacher from Bucharest. After a trying week, he and his lover Sweetie decide to go on a picnic. However, the day takes a sharp turn when Sweetie accidentally runs over Ana, a prostitute who was lying in the road on their way out of town. Not realizing she is actually still alive, they attempt to bury the body in a nearby forest, and when Ana unexpectedly recovers, they feign concern for her well-being.
What ensues is a thrilling study of character and conscience. Ana joins the couple’s picnic and then gradually ingratiates herself into their lives, manipulating them and playing them off each other. As Ana riles the lovers’ tempers, stirring up jealousy and infidelity and feeding their insecurities, their relationship becomes irreparably changed.

Awards / Festivals
- Jury Award: New Voices/New Visions Award (Palm Springs Int’l Film Society) 2009
- Best Actress (Ioana Flora; Maria Dinulescu) (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Special Jury Award – Silver Alexander (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Venice Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Toronto Int’l Film Festival) 2008

** Q & A session with actress Maria Dinulescu to follow screening.

Také / Tache (2008)

Director: Igor Cobileanski
Screenwriter: Mara Nicolescu
Cast: Mircea Diaconu, Bogdan Cotlet, Gabriel Spahiu, Nicodim Ungureanu, Constantin Draganescu
Running time: 80 min.

The story of a gravedigger, Také (Mircea Diaconu), who finds himself with only two months left to live. The desire to become famous leads him to prepare a grandiose burial. However, complications arise when his burial lot is given away to somebody else.

Awards / Festivals
- Official Selection (Transylvania Int’l Film Festival) 2008

** ToRo regretfully announces that director Igor Cobileanski will not be present at the festival due to scheduling conflicts.

Elevator (2008)

Director: George Dorobantu
Screenwriter: Gabriel Pintilei
Cast: Cristi Petrescu, Iulia Verdes
Running time: 85 min.

“The event of the year in Romanian cinema” – Nae Caranfil

A boy and a girl, both teenagers, want to get away from the world and be alone for a while, so they hide in an abandoned factory on the outskirts. But there they fall in a trap of their own intention, and get stuck in the cargo elevator. There is no one around to hear them, and nobody knows their whereabouts. Tension arises after each failed attempt to escape, while they also have to deal with the fact that their entire universe is now reduced to a metal box smaller than a room.

Awards / Festivals
- Fresh Generation Prize (Karolvy Vary Film Festival) 2008
- Best Debut in Romanian Film (Transylvania Int’l Film Festival) 2008

Life’s Hard / La Drumul Mare (2008)

Director: Gabriel Sirbu
Screenwriter: Gabriel Sirbu
Cast: Claudia Prec, Mihaela Betiu, Andi Vasluianu, Gabriel Spahiu
Running time: 20 min.

In the Bucharest gridlock, a thief strikes up a strange relationship with his female victim.

Awards / Festivals
- Jury Award (Aspen Short Film Festival) 2008
- Official selection (Palm Springs Int’l Film Society) 2008
- Official selection (Zagreb Int’l Film Festival) 2008

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Home / Acasa (2007)

Director: Paul Negoescu
Screenwriter: Paul Negoescu
Cast: Gabriel Spahiu, Marian Ralea
Running time: 14 min.

A Romanian migrant worker returning home from Spain on Christmas Eve. During the ride from the airport, the taxi driver reveals he wants to work abroad too. But after he sees the cold reunion of his client’s family he has a second thought…

Awards / Festivals
- Special Mention (Cinema Porto in Bra Int’l Film Festival)
- Special Mention (Paris Signes-de-Nuits Film Festival)
- Official Selection (Rotterdam Int’l Film Festival)
- Official Selection (BFI London Film Festival)
- Official Selection (Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival)

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Interior. Block of Flats, Hallway / Interior.Scara de Bloc (2007)

Director: Ciprian Alexandrescu
Scriptwriter: Simona Ghita
Cast: Tudor Aaron Istodor, Simona Ghita, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gabriel Spahiu, Vlad Ivanov
Running Time: 16 min

A couple argues, but suddenly bigger matters get in their minds and they are drawn to the hallway where they meet several of their neighbours.

Awards / Festivals
- Special jury prize (Uppsala International Short Film Festival) 2008
- Official selection (Cannes) 2008
- Arte short film award (Hamburg Int’l Short Film Festival) 2008

* audience-choice winner at “romaniancinemaNOW: a film festival preview“ (Dec.12)

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A Very Short Trilogy of Loneliness / O Foarte Scurta Trilogia A Singuratatii (2006)

Director: Bogdan Apetri
Screenwriter: Bogdan Apetri
Cast: Marius David, Laur Marin, Anca David
Running time: 7 min.

Open country and a small river, the vista stretching far into the distance. A car approaches and stops. A woman gets out, lights a cigarette, stares into space, then drives on. And then another car, another figure, briefly only, alone again, just passing. Brief stops in a stark landscape, loneliness pausing for loneliness. Meditative moments from a post-industrial age.

Awards / Festivals
- Official Selection (Seattle Int’l Film Festival) 2007
- Official Nomination (Student Oscar) 2007
- Official Selection (Cottbus Film Festival) 2007

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Green Oaks / Stejarii Verzi (2004)

Director: Ruxandra Zenide
Screenwriter: Marek Epstein
Cast: George Hoffmann, Maria Dinulescu, Valentin Popescu, Juliet Strimbeanu, Dorotea Brandin, Roberto Molo
Running time: 30 min.

George looks after his little sister in a remote part of Romania. They are all alone in the world. And even if fate over-takes them, life will reassert its claims.

Awards / Festivals
- Golden Unicorn (Alpinale Film Festival) 2004
- Official Selection (Ismalia Int’l Film Festival) 2004

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Megatron (2008)

Director: Marian Crisan
Screenwriter: Marian Crisan
Cast: Gabriela Crisu, Damian Oancea, Erwin Simsensohn, Maxim Adrian Strinu
Running time: 14 min.

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.

Awards / Festivals
- Palme D’Or (Cannes Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Thessaloniki Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Austin Int’l Film Festival) 2008

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The Yellow Smiley Face / Fata Galbena Care Rade (2008)

Director: Constantin Popescu
Screenwriter: Doru Lupe
Cast: Luminita Gheorghiu, Teodor Corban, George Constantinescu
Running time: 15 min.

Mia and Florin Popescu, the two main characters, are two ordinary people, both over 50 and both a little scared of the technological changes going on around them. To them, the computer is nothing more than a piece of furniture until the chance to communicate with their son, Alex, who lives in USA, makes them step into the virtual world. They explore this new territory using the instructions Alex has sent them in a letter.

Awards / Festivals
- Official selection (Locarno Film Festival) 2008
- Official selection (Transylvania International Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Warsaw Film Festival) 2008

Cold Waves / Razboi pe Calea Undelor (2007)

Director: Alexandru Solomon
Screenwriter: Alexandru Solomon
Running time: 90 min.

screening co-presented by

How does fear and corruption bend down an entire society?
How easy does one give up his freedom?
Is there a way to avoid being an instrument of propaganda?
It might not seem a subversive act, but radio listening in Ceausescu’s Romania was a risky undertaking. Founded Radio Free Europe broadcast its music and pro-democracy propaganda across the Iron Curtain. As millions of listeners tuned in Ceausescu’s strong men worked to bring about its demise. Employing Carlos the Jackal to help bring about RFE’s demise, Ceausecu’s secret war included bombs and radiation attacks.
Romanian director Alexandru Solomon, who grew up listening to the station, uses a combination of wide-ranging interviews, archive and evocative re-enactment to relate the often unbelievable dramas taking place off-air. He explores the paralysing atmosphere of fear in 1980s Romania, and the failure of society to act collectively against the Ceausecu dictatorship. Meanwhile, the RFE editors didn’t always fight clean themselves…A chilling insight into the final chapter of the Cold War.
This is the unique story of a love and hate triangle built around something one cannot see, touch or weigh: radio waves.

Awards / Festivals
- Official Selection (Astra Film Festival Sibiu) 2007
- Official Selection (IDFA Amsterdam) 2007
- Official Selection (DOK Leipzig Film Festival) 2007
- Official Selection (Alpe Adria, Trieste) 2008
- Official Selection (Visions du Reel, Switzerland) 2008

** Q & A session with director Alexandru Solomon to follow screening.

Electro (2007)

Director: Matei-Alexandru Mocanu
Screenwriter: Matei-Alexandru Mocanu
Running time: 52 min.

screening co-presented by

“A snapshot of a subculture in development as Bucharest DJs, promoters and clubbers talk about the Romanian capital’s growing electronica scene.”
A fresh look at electronica from the perspective of a country shaking off pop-culture isolation, Matei-Alexandru Mocanu’s stylish documentary is a snapshot of a subculture in development. Bucharest DJs, promoters and clubbers with tastes ranging from thumping techno to experimental sound sculpture address the different subsets of the scene, the influence of fashion and drugs, relations with the international electronic underground, and the question of whether they are building a movement or just making music.

Awards / Festivals
- Official Selection (Transylvania Int’l Film Festival) 2007
- Official Selection (ASTRA Film Sibiu – Int`l Festival of Documentary Film and Visual Anthropology) 2007
- Official Selection (Ethnocineca08  - Austria) 2008
- Official Selection ( MusiXine / Oulu Music Video Festival – Finland) 2008
- Official Selection (Music on Film – Film on Music – Czech Republic) 2008
- Official Selection (DaKino Int`l Film Festival) 2007

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Viva Constanta ! (2007)

Director: Ambrus Emese
Screenwriter: Ambrus Emese
Running time: 43 min.

screening co-presented by

Tudor Lakatos is a 40-year-old Gipsy teacher in the ghetto of Somcuta, in the northern region of Romania, who wants to become famous as an Elvis Presley imitator. He translates most of the King’s songs into the Gipsy language. One day, under the name of Elvis Rromano (Gipsy Elvis), he sets off to the port city of Constanta to try his luck with popularizing this kind of music, rock and rom (Gipsy rock).

Awards / Festivals
- Special Prize for Best Documentary on Intercultural Dialogue (DocumFest Film Festival, Timisoara) 2008
- Official Selection (ASTRA Film Sibiu – Int`l Festival of Documentary Film and Visual Anthropology) 2007
- Official Selection (Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (CineFest Int’l Festival of Young Filmmakers) 2008
- Official Selection (Transylvania Int’l Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (DaKINO Int’l Film Festival) 2007

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

Boogie (2008)

Director: Radu Muntean
Screenwriter: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu
Cast: Dragos Bucur, Anamaria Marinca, Mimi Branescu, Adrian Vancica, Vlad Muntean
Running time: 102 min.

Bogdan Boogie Ciocazanu, a successful businessman, is on a relaxing seaside vacation with his family. By coincidence, he runs into his best buddies from high school. As evening falls, a heavy trip down memory lane ensues. The former schoolmates talk about past drinking binges and forgotten sexual encounters. The all-male gang decides to try and re-live past glories with a night on the town. The family man is torn between going home to his wife, and having one last, wild party with the boys.

Awards / Festivals
- Best Screenplay (Hamptons International Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Cannes Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival) 2008
- Official Selection (Stockholm International Film Festival) 2008