Corneliu Porumboiu

24 – 28 October 2019, Curzon Soho Cinema
www.rofilmfest.com

Dear film lovers & friends,
We are delighted to return to Curzon Cinema and showcase Romania’s finest releases from the past year.

We would like to invite you to the 15th Romanian Film Festival in London, which will take place at Curzon Soho, between 24 - 28 October 2019.

The Romanian Film Festival (RFF15) is back once again, bringing you new releases, talented artists, and important debates with film experts and critics, from Romania to the UK. Special events and conversations accompany the screenings, continuing the tradition of the festival as a joyful celebration of Romanian cinema. Award-winning filmmakers, directors and actors will join the festival to enter into a dialogue with their audiences.

The festival title Fragments of Truth encapsulates the many-layered themes of RFF15.

Its history and successful track record makes RFF15 one of the major Romanian cultural events of the year in Britain. For many, this will be an opportunity to encounter a cinema which addresses itself to the history and conditions of a specific audience, while at the same time tackling themes which are universal, and which explore the emotions and experience of an international public. On the other hand, during this period of challenge to the issue of cultural understanding across Europe, your continuing interest will prove priceless in the promotion of Romanian culture throughout the continent and in Britain.

Thank you for your support, and see you on the red carpet!
Ramona Mitrica & Mike Phillips
Profusion Directors

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Filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu features twice, with his crime thriller The Whistlers / La Gomera and sports documentary Infinite Football. Ioana Uricaru's debut feature Lemonade plays, as does Daniel Sandu's One Step Behind the Seraphim, with the festival closing with Moromete Family: On the Edge of Time, sequel to one of Romanian cinema's most lauded adaptations.

The 15th Romanian Film Festival in London is entitled Fragments of Truth and takes place at Curzon Soho between 24 - 28 October 2019 (www.curzoncinemas.com/rff). Films are in Romanian with English subtitles.

The Romanian Film Festival in London (RFF) features a glittering and stimulating array of titles. Very popular and talented artists are joining us for the UK premieres of the latest Romanian films: directors Corneliu Porumboiu, Ioana Uricariu and Stere Gulea, lead actor Vlad Ivanov, visual artist Arantxa Etcheverria Porumboiu.
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PROGRAMME:

Thursday 24 October 2019; 6.20pm
THE WHISTLERS / LA GOMERA (d: Corneliu Porumboiu)
Screening followed by Q&A with director Corneliu Porumboiu, lead actor Vlad Ivanov and visual artist Arantxa Etcheverria Porumboiu
(2019 | Romania-France-Germany | Comedy, Crime | 97 min | in Romanian, with English subtitles)
UK Distribution: Curzon Artificial Eye www.curzonartificialeye.com
Stars: Vlad Ivanov, Catrinel Marlon, Rodica Lazar, Agusti Villaronga, Sabin Tambrea, Istvan Teglas, Cristobal Pinto, Antonio Buil, George Pistereanu
An exciting suspense thriller, about a corrupt Bucharest cop (Vlad Ivanov), who has become involved in the drug-money-laundering setup he has been investigating. He arrives in La Gomera in the Canary Islands in order to infiltrate the mafia and recover a large sum of money concealed inside a mysterious mattress, but he must first learn the difficult local dialect, a language that includes whistling, hissing and spitting.

Friday 25 October 2019; 6.45pm
INFINITE FOOTBALL (d: Corneliu Porumboiu)
UK Premiere. Followed by Q&A with director Corneliu Porumboiu
(2018 | Romania | Documentary | 70 min | in Romanian, with English subtitles)
UK Distribution: ANTI-WORLDS RELEASING
www.anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk/
After a sports injury that left him unable to play professional football, Lauren?iu Ginghina sees himself as a football revolutionary, yearning to upgrade and refine the game, but his theories and trials soon reveal the way that we’re all players in our own beautiful games. It’s Monty Python’s Fear of the Penalty… A heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of Porumboiu’s childhood friend.

Saturday 26 October 2019; 3.00pm
LEMONADE (d: Ioana Uricaru)
UK Premiere. Followed by Q&A with director Ioana Uricaru (on Skype)
(2018 | Romania | Drama | 88 min | in Romanian, with English subtitles)
Stars: Malina Manovici, Dylan Smith, Steve Bacic
The film follows Mara (Malina Manovici), a nurse and single mother who has come to America on a temporary work visa and marries an American she has met only a few months before. In the process of getting a green card she is faced with abuses of power on every level and forced to test her own limits. The writer-director based her plot on the difficulties she faced obtaining residency in America many years ago, empathetically exploring the timely and contentious issue of U.S. immigration.

Sunday 27 October 2019; 5.00pm
ONE STEP BEHIND THE SERAPHIM (d: Daniel Sandu)
UK Premiere. Followed by Q&A with lead actor Vlad Ivanov
(2017 | Romania | Drama |150 min | in Romanian, with English subtitles)
Stars: Vlad Ivanov, Stefan Iancu, Toto Dumitrescu
A tale of clashing loyalties, set in an Orthodox Theological Seminary. Gabriel, a teenager who wants to become a priest is caught in the fight for power between an incorruptible but abusive priest (Vlad Ivanov) and a cunning, dishonest and unscrupulous secular teacher. Daniel Sandu’s directorial debut is build around his real experiences at the theological seminary.

Monday 28 October 2019; 6.15pm
MOROMETE FAMILY: ON THE EDGE OF TIME (d: Stere Gulea)
UK Premiere. Followed by Q&A with director Stere Gulea
(2018 | Romania | Drama | 110 min | in Romanian, with English subtitles)
Stars: Horatiu Malaele, Iosif Pastina, Dana Dogaru, Razvan Vasilescu, Gheorghe Visu, Oana Pellea, Andi Vasluianu, Ion Caramitru
The film continues the story of the Moromete family from the village of Campia Dunarii. Set in the 1940s, as Romania gradually succumbs to communism, it focuses on the drama of the peasants who see their world, governed by their own hard work, the law of the market and the nature’s rhythm, being replaced by a new political regime, which they consider unnatural and abusive.
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Organised by: Profusion International (www.profusion.org.uk)