Four new films and several classic productions from the Republic of Moldova will be screened, with special guests in attendance, for the first time in Timișoara at Ceau, Cineclub!, in a focus dedicated to Bessarabian cinema, taking place from October 29th to November 1st at Cinema Studio.
The new films section includes the fiction films “Transit Times – Alienation” (2026), directed by Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu, and “The Circle” (2026), directed by Valeriu Andriuță, as well as the feature-length documentaries “Lenin’s Pawn” (2026), directed by Dragoș Turea, and “Grandmother’s Last Letters” (2025), directed by Olga Lucovnicova. All screenings will be followed by discussions with the filmmakers.
The classics section features the masterpiece “The Fiddlers” (1972), directed by Emil Loteanu, the most important Bessarabian filmmaker, as well as a selection of short films from the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s, under the title “End of the USSR,” made by filmmaker Vlad Druck, the event’s special guest.
The program is completed by a screening of “Carbon” (2022), directed by Ion Borș, the most successful Bessarabian film of recent decades, as well as a discussion on cinema from across the Prut River, featuring the invited filmmakers and Valentina Iusuphodjaev, director of the National Cinematography Center of the Republic of Moldova.
The program and tickets are available on the Ceau, Cinema! website and the Timișoara cinemas website.
The retrospective will begin with “Lenin’s Pawn”, directed by Dragoș Turea, a hybrid documentary in which actor Sergiu Voloc, a modern-day Don Quixote, wages an absurd battle against Lenin monuments in the Republic of Moldova and a system that insists on rebuilding them night after night. The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Dragoș Turea and producer Nicoleta Cocoță.
The story of “Transit Times – Alienation,” directed by Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu, is set in 1997, six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It centers on a family in Chișinău living in a shared courtyard and struggling to survive a harsh social transition. Through the lives of the couple and their daughter, the film portrays a country caught between the memory of the past and the uncertainty of the future. Director Ana-Felicia Scutelnicu and actress Marina Palii will be present at the screening.
Also set in the late 1990s, “The Circle,” directed by acclaimed actor Valeriu Andriuță, follows a young investigator at the beginning of his career, who is sent from the Capital to determine whether an incident was a murder or an accident: a man was shot dead during a hunting trip. Soon, this seemingly straightforward case becomes a test of conscience. Valeriu Andriuță will answer questions from the audience online after the screening.
In the documentary “Grandmother’s Last Letters,” Olga Lucovnicova follows a deeply buried family secret, setting off with her father for Asha, his hometown in the Ural Mountains. As the filmmaker attempts to reconnect with the past, Russia launches a new war. Will the past once again be silenced? The screening will be followed by an online discussion with the director.
The selection also includes “Carbon,” the most popular Bessarabian film of recent decades, directed by Ion Borș. On their way to the front in Transnistria, two friends who have recently enlisted in the army discover a charred corpse. They are sent on an absurd journey in a tractor to identify it.
The event’s special guest will be renowned director and professor Vlad Druck, who will present five of his bold and unconventional short films, made mainly in the second half of the 1980s, during the height of perestroika: “The Games of Our Childhood,” “Poor Little Turtle Dove,” “Vive la femme,” “Nudity,” and “In a Snug Beehive.”
The focus also includes a special screening of the classic film “The Fiddlers”, one of the great films by renowned director Emil Loteanu and a landmark of cinema from the Republic of Moldova and the former USSR. Toma Alistar, leader of a Romani band of musicians from the Bessarabian steppes, is a brilliant violinist whose fame takes him to numerous European capitals and royal courts. He remains obsessed with his first love, the beautiful Leanca, a woman who married another man while he was away on his travels. “The Fiddlers” received the Silver Shell and the Special Jury Prize at San Sebastián, Spain’s most important film festival. The screening will be introduced by Valentina Iusuphodjaev, director of the Moldova’s National Cinematography Center.
“These years, the small cinema scene of Bessarabia is experiencing a well-deserved revival, with films confidently making their way onto the international festival circuit, created by extraordinary talents based in the Republic of Moldova, Romania, or other countries. Examining the recent and traumatic past, with its historical events whose effects still resonate today, remains a natural and necessary concern, expressed either through dramatic stories with warm touches or through exuberantly absurd comedy, where the much-loved Moldovan humor is at its best. Through this unique focus, we are bringing together the energetic generation of today with celebrated names from Moldovan cinema of recent decades, in a dialogue that we hope will be as revealing as possible,” says film critic Ionuț Mareș, curator of Ceau, Cineclub!
The focus is organized by Ceau, Cinema! and is part of Ceau, Cineclub!, a series of events organised apart from the festival.
Funded and organized in partnership with the Municipality of Timișoara through the Center for Projects.
Partners: Studio Cinema, National Cinematography Center of the Republic of Moldova
Sponsor: Groupama
Promotional partners: STPT, Cărturești, Kinostetic
