| The Transylvania International Film Festival in Cluj-Napoca 14/06/2011 |
| (2011-06-14) |
| Last updated: 2011-06-15 12:14 EET |
Good films, powerful emotions, nice surprises, prestigious guests, well-deserved awards, standing ovations – that is how we could characterize in brief the Transylvania Film Festival hosted by the city of Cluj Napoca in central Romania last week.
12 films from Belgium, Spain, Israel, the US, Russia, Iceland, Argentina, Romania, Sweden, Germany, India and Denmark competed last week for the big trophy of the Transylvania Film Festival. The jury decided that the film deserving it was ‘Sin retorno’ – No way back, made in 2010 by the Argentine director Miguel Cohan.
The film also got the best script award. Apparently, that was the most complex film in the festival, a lecture on morality disguised in a high quality thriller. The story is simple but extremely touching. A boy loses his life in a car accident, the driver runs away and the justice punishes an innocent man.
The only Romanian film which entered the competition was ‘Principles of Life’, by Constantin Popescu, which got the best directing award, just like Icelandic director Runar Runarsson, for ‘the Volcano’. In Constantin Popescu’s film the main character, who wants to solve all his problems just one day before leaving on holiday with his new family, ends up by wondering whether he is really happy and accomplished. Runarsson’s film is the story of a pensioner who must face both the consequences of past choices and current difficulties.
The best actress award went to French actress Elodie Bouchez for her part in the film ‘Imperialists haven’t died’, about a woman of Arab descent who grew up in Europe and became an artist in the US.
An emotional moment in the festival was definitely the one in which Romanian director Lucian Pintilie got the excellence award of the festival, for his special contribution to developing Romanian film-making, as the director of the Transylvania Film Festival Tudor Giurgiu said. According to the renowned film producer Marin Karmitz, Lucian Pintilie, celebrated through a retrospective look at his best creations, is the one we should thank for promoting Romanian film making across the world.
The special guest to the Cluj Napoca festival was British actress Jacqueline Bisset, who got the festival’s special award for her contribution to the world cinematography.
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2025-04-03
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