Back to Romania
There was an issue of the Rotterdam festival's Daily Tiger published especially for Cannes 2008, with a photo of the new director Rutger Wolfson on the cover and a lot of information and articles about the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Among these were profiles of the festival programmers, and the last of the questions that we were asked was something like what was our ideal of earthly happiness. I remember I answered that I would love to put together a programme for a small festival not far away from a sandy beach, with many film lovers and some wonderful guests from the cinema world.
They say that if you shout and send your dream wishes out there into the universe, they might even come true.
Well, I must confess that it did work this time, and my wish for a small and cosy festival near the sea came true in August 2008. A few months beforehand, while walking through the streets of Bratislava, I had a bit of a clandestine phone call from Romania. The director of the Anonimul film festival, Miruna Berescu, said there was someone in Romania who had recommended me to become a selector for her festival this year. She would not tell me who, but she did tell me about her small festival on the Danube River where one of last year’s guests of honour was Cristian Mungiu. I remembered Cristian mentioning it, so I did not refuse the idea immediately. It took some time, though, for the two of us to attune and find out whether my film taste would be acceptable for the festival and its audiences as well. We did agree in the end, and I had a free hand in selecting nine feature films for their competition.
As with my previous experiences with selections for smaller and internationally less-known festivals like Artfilm, here again we have to struggle with refusals of sales agents, producers, and distributors who all have their own strategies with films and do not want to give “too fresh” films to these kind of small festivals. Sometimes you have to wait a year to be able to show a film you want. This phenomenon is quite frustrating and unknown to someone who works for the IFF Rotterdam (and it made me realised how privileged I am, working for Rotterdam). For smaller festivals, you can have great programme structures and ideas but you also have to wait and see which of the films that you have selected are available - and then to adapt to sometimes cruel reality and change your dramaturgy totally.
The trip on the bumpy roads from Bucharest to the Danube Delta on a hot August day took a few hours and was pretty tiring, but the last part of it, which took place in a speedboat and offered us a wonderful scene of the sunset behind the Danube's water, was energizing as well. On our arrival, we were rewarded with a picture that reminded me of a mirage somewhere in the Sahara desert - the wooden houses of the Green Village where the festival took place were surrounded by wonderful natural green scenery. My heart was taken immediately. It seems like there is a new wave of film lovers in Eastern Europe with lots of money (read: business people) who are willing to put it into the organisation of film festivals instead of yet another house or helicopter.
I am happy with that, as this way, there are more and more opportunities to show art films to local audiences – and this is a dream of all of us working in the film industry, I guess.
Number nine changes into lucky seven. But the seven selections are all great. And we do manage to receive one of my favourites of the last year – Carlos Reygadas' Silent Light (that turns out to become the winner later on)
The strong part of Anonimul FF is also its showcase of shorts where young and unknown, beginning filmmakers are selected. Their presence, together with a few big names from the film industry, creates a wonderful mixture and creative atmosphere. During the week, you can meet all the foreign guests and have interesting and intriguing discussions with them. At the same time, this is a great opportunity to talk to the Romanian filmmakers and press as well.
The president of the jury is Mr. Krzysztof Zanussi who says he likes the film selection except one (and you can make your own guess). His colleagues are the charismatic actress from Palme d'Or winner 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, Laura Vasiliu, German producer Joachim von Vietinghoff, Romanian screenwriter Lucian Georgescu, and my old Bulgarian friend, the film critic Bojidar Manov. It's a great chance for me to meet someone like Joachim von Vietinghoff as he is a great name after producing some films of the Hungarian master Bela Tarr - so there is certainly a lot common ground for our discussions. What’s more, Joachim is advising a new Romanian production, the feature-length directorial debut of Lucian Georgescu. As a screenwriter, Lucian is a great storyteller, but the producer Joachim is not that bad either. What result are sessions of great storytelling and story listening on the Danube River Delta. What a wonderful and inspiring job I have, I am realising once again.
The organisation of the festival is also very good, thanks to the devotion of many young and talented girls, often students, often volunteers, who surely add to the wonderful atmosphere here. They love cinema, they love their guests, and that you can feel!
They also know how to do surprises! The girls all come and surround me one evening, holding a homemade tart in their hands with burning candles on it, and sing a song in a language that is totally incomprehensible to me. I guess they know it's my birthday and I also guess it's a Romanian Happy Birthday song! It did sound like Gaudeamus Igitur a bit...and there was the number 18 on my birthday cake...