Five of the most anticipated Romanian films of this year will be screened for the first time in Timișoara, in the presence of the filmmakers, during the 12th edition of the Ceau, Cinema! Festival, which will take place between July 16 and 20.
The premiere series will start with the documentary ”Tata” (2024), followed by a discussion with the two filmmakers, Lina Vdovîi and Radu Ciorniciuc. A Moldovan journalist, estranged from her father who emigrated to Italy years ago, discovers that he has become the victim of workplace abuse. As she decides to help him expose his employer, old wounds resurface, sparking a parallel journey through a relationship marked by violence. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was also selected for CPH:DOX and the Zurich Film Festival.
Another highly anticipated documentary is ”Tooth and Nail” („După cioate”,2025), by Mihai Dragolea and Radu Mocanu, who are also guests at Ceau, Cinema! Two filmmakers follow a businessman turned eco-activist as he exposes Romania’s timber mafia. Their journey takes a dramatic turn when, deep in the forest, the three are attacked by a group of twelve angry men. Their cameras are destroyed, and all footage is lost. Faced with this harsh reality, each of them tries to manage the situation the best they can, confronting their own doubts and limitations. ”Tooth and Nail” had its world premiere at the Krakow Film Festival.
After having been a member of the Ceau, Cinema! jury in 2022, director Eugen Jebeleanu returns to Timișoara, his native city, to present his latest film, ”Internal Zero” („Interior zero”, 2025), which had its world premiere at the Vilnius Festival. Cristina, a 35-year-old secretary, lives in a hostile and alienating Bucharest. She tries to figure out what it means to be the “functional adult” that society expects her to be, while striving to remain a good daughter to the mother who raised her alone. Cristina is also the protagonist of a novel that a director is adapting into a film. As the actors begin to inhabit Cristina’s story, their real lives and the social conditions shaping them start to merge with the fiction they’ve been given—gradually claiming it, questioning it, and altering it.
Selected for the Toronto and Thessaloniki festivals, ”Ink Wash” (2024) is the directorial debut of Sarra Tsorakidis, who will attend Ceau, Cinema! alongside actress and co-writer Ilinca Hărnuț. Lena, a mural painter, finds herself at a particularly vulnerable point in her life. She turns 40 and is newly single, after years in a long-term relationship. Disappointed and heartbroken, she throws herself into her work, accepting an offer to paint the walls of a hotel surrounded by forests in southwestern Romania. Isolated in the heart of nature, Lena is forced to discover her inner strength and moral values in a country overwhelmed by corruption.
Presented at the Locarno Film Festival, ”Eight Postcards from Utopia” („Opt ilustrate din lumea ideală”, 2024), made by Radu Jude and Christian Ferencz-Flatz, is a found-footage documentary assembled exclusively out of advertisements from Romania’s long transition period. By bringing them together, these materials are made to speak about life, death and love, about the body and vulnerability, about nature and the supernatural, about recent history and, of course, about socialism and capitalism. It’s a film that lies somewhere between found poetry and the encyclopedia of the contemporary world, between trash art and Summa Theologiae. The screening will be followed by a discussion with editor Cătălin Cristuțiu.
More information can be found on www.ceaucinema.ro, as well as on the festival’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
Festival passes are available on Eventbook. The program and tickets will be available at the beginning of July.
Ceau, Cinema! Festival is dedicated to European cinema and is organized by the Association Pelicula Culturală.
Funded by the Municipality of Timișoara through the Center for Projects.
Sponsors: Groupama Insurance, Vitas Romania, E.ON Energie România
International partners: the international film festival for children and youth SCHLiNGEL in Chemnitz (Germany), Kinoatelje Gorizia/Nova Gorica (Italy/Slovenia)
Partners: Cinema Studio, Cinema Timiș, Cinema Victoria, Banatul Philharmonic, Lipoplast, Timișoara Social Assistance Directorate, the House of Arts – Timiș County Directorate for Culture, the Italian Cultural Institute in Bucharest, the German Cultural Center in Timișoara, the Liszt Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center Bucharest, the Polish Institute Bucharest, the Czech Center Bucharest, the Embassy of Spain, the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest, the Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest, the French Institute in Timișoara, the French Institute in Bucharest
Supported by: Porsche Timişoara, Ibis Timisoara City Center, Little Hanoi, Ovride, Crama Aramic, Prospero, Cărtureşti Timişoara, Faber, Ambasada, Ceva de Spus Association, Cartea Călătoare Foundation, Marele Ecran Association, Animest, Timişoara la cutie, the Faculty of Arts and Design of the West University of Timişoara, Eventbook, Claudia Roşu
Media partners: Films in Frame, West City Radio, CineFan, Tributary Stu, În Bine