I tend to remain equally reserved in relation to Romanian cinema as a whole. More and more films are being produced (which is very good), but the percentage of success and recognition of value remain the same as when much fewer was being produced. What I find commendable is that independent films are being made, especially in the documentary field.
I really liked what Alexandra Gulea did in Maia – Portrait with Hands, a poetic hybrid inspired by Paradjanov that inventively plays with reality, reconstruction and live action fiction. Other interesting titles include Andrei Crețulescu's cinephile meta-horror, Ext. Car. Night, and the improbable cocktail of genres, visual puzzle-filled Where the Elephants Go by duo Gabi Șarga and Cătălin Rotaru.
The way Stere Gulea ends the Moromeții saga with a love film perfectly calibrated to the political changes and ideological turns of the era is very moving. The twist in the second half of the documentary A Cautionary Tale by Ilinca Călugăreanu is impressive, and the razor-sharp directorial rigor of Holy Week (dir. Andrei Cohn) and Three Kilometers to the End of the World (dir. Emanuel Pârvu) cuts in living flesh.
But the most pleasant surprise of all the Romanian Film Days is the satisfyingly wtf proposal from George ve Ganæaard and Horia Cucuta, Dismissed, a low-budget indie assembled as a fake investigative documentary, but with a plot so dense and winding that you cannot not imagine what a blockbuster could’ve come out of this story if the guys hadn’t just paid to make this movie out of their own pockets.