11/05/2017 - Alongside the well-known titles, such as Ana, Mon Amour, there are five world premieres

Every year, the Transilvania International Film Festival (2-11 June) ends in a frenzy, with its most popular sidebar, the Romanian Days, drawing hundreds of film professionals and critics to the Transylvanian town of Cluj-Napoca in search of local cinema’s next gems and big names. The festival’s 16^th edition is sure not to disappoint, with 13 fiction and documentary features, and 14 short films in selection.

Five of the features will have their world premieres at the Transilvania IFF. Iulia Rugină’s Breaking News [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iulia Rugină
film profile] centres on a TV journalist (Andi Vasluianu) who survives an explosion in a factory, a tragedy that will drive him down a new path in life. In contrast, Dan Chişu’s The Anniversary [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] seems to tread a similar path to Sieranevada [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Cristi Puiu
film profile], as religion and family relationships are discussed at a birthday-party gathering.

Among the most eagerly awaited documentaries is Alexandru Solomon’s Tarzan’s Testicles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alexandru Solomon
film profile], described as an SF-documentary hybrid. Claudiu Mitcu and Ileana Bîrsan will show The Trial [+see also:
trailer
film profile], about a Romanian man convicted to 25 years behind bars for a crime he says he didn’t commit. Eight years after winning the sidebar’s Best First Feature Award with Constantin and Elena, Andrei Dăscălescu will show his new documentary, Planet Petrila [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], after its world premiere at this year’s IDFA. Meanwhile, Radu Jude will show the doc The Dead Nation [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Other titles in the selection have already been seen at international film festivals or have already had their domestic release. Ana, Mon Amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Călin Peter Netzer
film profile], The Fixer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adrian Sitaru
interview: Tudor Aaron Istodor
film profile] and Scarred Hearts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Jude
film profile] are all in the selection, alongside Alexandra Bălteanu’s Prowl [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a debut feature produced by the Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie, which is being shown for the first time in Romania after it was selected last year at San Sebastián.

The section is rounded off by Cosmin Bumbuț and Elena Stancu's The Last Cauldron Maker, Gheorghe Preda’s Camera Obscura and Șerban Georgescu’s Cabbage, Potatoes and Other Demons.