Romanian Carnival in Venice

Romania will participate for the first time officially, as guest of honor, in the traditional Venice Carnival between January 25th - February 6th 2008. The event will be marked by large-scale cultural manifestations showcasing Romanian culture.

Some of the artists who will represent Romania at the shows in Venice are actor Dan Puric, Olt county folk dancers, the Sukar Collective Gypsy musicians, the Masca theatre group, the Philarmonia chamber orchestra, the bands Nightlosers, Marius Mihalache, Amadeus and Nicolas Simion. Inside the traditional space of the Venice Biennale, the Venice City Hall offered Romania Italy's Pavilion.

New Wave on the Black Sea

Read here the most interesting 6-page article by A. O. Scott, film critic at The Times, published on January 20th 2008 at The New York Times - one of the best analysis of today's Romanian cinema written by a foreign critic, who came to Bucharest and talked personally with the country's main film directors.

How do you say "Oscar Scandal" in Romanian?

Have a look here at the film critic Scott Foundas' article from January 15th 2008 published at L.A. Weekly about the absence of the Romanian movie "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" by Cristian Mungiu among the shortlisted films for this year's Foreign Language Oscar. This is one of numerous recent critics to the selection criteria used by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.

EU: promise, demands - and anxiety

On January 7th 2007 an interesting and still up-to-date article dedicated to Romania, named "In a new light - Joining the European Union brings with it promise, demands - and anxiety" and signed by Tom Haines, who spent New Year in a traditional small village in Southern Bukovina, was published by The Boston Globe. You may have access to the text clicking here. And watch the video here.

NATO Summit Bucharest 2008

Since yesterday, all information regarding the NATO Summit which shall be held between April 2^nd and 4^th 2008 in Bucharest can be accessed through this official site. It is still under construction, so that more information will appear in the near future. The website contains a detailed presentation of Romania and also a brief description of Bucharest, currently the sixth biggest capital in the European Union.

Moschella

During the weekend of 1-2 December 2007, we guided the musicians Alexandre Moschella (Brazil) and his wife Fernanda Bertinato to Bukovina, where they learnt about local traditions, had meals at old Moldavian inns and visited the monasteries of Dragomirna, Sucevita, Humor and Voronet.

Jill Kasen

On September 29th and October 6th 2007, Jill Kasen (US) and her trip colleague Arleen Glikbarg (US) were guided through the remains of Jewish Bucharest. They also had the occasion to visit the main touristic attractions of the Romanian capital, mix of Istambul and Paris.

Coppola attends the première of his latest movie in Bucharest

The film “Youth without youth” by Francis Ford Coppola had on October 23rd the gala screening in Bucharest, only three days after the world first from the Rome Festival.

The event was attended by the director together with part of the Romanian production team. Francis Ford Coppola, the maker of the famous trilogy “The Godfather,” of “Apocalypse Now” and of the well-known film about Dracula, was accompanied by his wife and his son.

An adaptation of the homonymous short story of Mircea Eliade, the script of the film is written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, marking his return to authoring his own films, alongside a production and direction team consisting chiefly of Romanians. Coppola thought to shoot “Youth without youth” as if at the beginning of his career, with a small budget and a young team who worked together with him 14-15 hours a day, for six months. “The team was very young and enthusiastic, eager to adapt to the only possible method to shoot this film,” stressed the director.

This is the first film of Coppola in the last ten years. According to the New York Times, the film is a mixture of genres. Initially, the story of professor Dominic Matei (played by Tim Roth), which begins in Bucharest in 1938, is similar to an espionage thriller from WW II. But the political plot dissipates as Matei falls in love with a young woman who seems able to travel back in time, and the film becomes a strange combination of love, mystery and philosophical speculation.

Source: George Grigoriu's article on Nine O'Clock

Picture: Romania Libera

Shell

Elliot and Ellen Shell (US) - below, in front of Bucharest main railway station - spent the weekend of 9-10 June 2007 in Bucharest, the city where his family lived in the 20's, after emigrating from Ukraine and before leaving by train to Constantinople towards a new life. After a dense and touching visit including Jewish sites and chosen attractions under the guidance of Elena, family Shell left the Romanian capital to Istanbul by train as well, in order to reproduce the voyage made by his ancestrals 80 years ago.

Palme d'or décernée au roumain Cristian Mungiu

Le jury du 60^e Festival de Cannes a décerné, dimanche 27 mai au soir, la Palme d'or à un film roumain, 4 mois, 3 semaines et 2 jours, en tête d'un palmarès qui braque résolument les projecteurs sur le cinéma d'auteur le plus exigeant.

Ce palmarès ignore en revanche totalement des habitués de la Croisette tels que Quentin Tarantino, Emir Kusturica, Wong Kar-wai ou les frères Coen, alors que le film de ces derniers, No Country for Old Men, était souvent donné favori par les rumeurs.

"Pour moi, c'est un peu un conte de fées", a commenté le réalisateur de 4 mois, 3 semaines et 2 jours, dont le sacre est également celui d'un jeune cinéma roumain qui s'impose comme l'un des plus créatifs sur la scène internationale. "J'espère que cette Palme d'or sera une bonne nouvelle pour les petits cinéastes des petits pays, car il semble enfin qu'on n'ait plus besoin de gros budgets et de grandes stars pour faire une histoire que tout le monde écoutera", a-t-il poursuivi.

Cristian Mungiu, 39 ans, avait été remarqué dès son premier long métrage, Occident, présenté en 2002 dans le cadre de la Quinzaine des réalisateurs. Stylistiquement épuré, son deuxième film, au maigre budget de 600 000 euros, est un récit cru et puissant d'un avortement interdit sous le régime communiste.

source: Le Monde

Romanian novel becomes Coppola movie

Marking the return of substantial filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola to his homeland after ten years, "Youth Without Youth", his first effort since 1997's "The Rainmaker", will make its world premiere at Italy's 2nd annual RomaCinemaFest held this year on October 18-27.

"This film represents a new period in my career, where I intend to make only personal films," Coppola remarked. "I look forward to showing it at this new festival in Italy, whose great masters such as Rossellini, Fellini, Visconti, Pasolini and Antonioni inspired my early career."

Also written by Coppola, the WWII-set is an adaptation of the Romanian author Mircea Eliade novel which focuses on an elderly professor whose apparent immortality makes him a target of the Nazis. Tim Roth is toplining with Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Pirici, Marcel Iures, and Andre Hennicke co-starring.

source: Aceshowbiz

Jewish population in Romania

The map shows the Jewish population per county in the territory of Greater Romania, according to the census of 1930.

The counties of Cernauti, Iasi and Lapusna had the largest communities, counting over 40,000 Jews each.

N.B.: (1) Cernauti: or Chernovitz, Chernivtsi, main county in Northern Bukovina, with capital bearing the same name, today in Ukraine; (2) Iasi: most important county in the Romanian historical region of Moldavia, with capital bearing the same name; (3) Lapusna: county in Bessarabia, with Chisinau (Kishinev) as capital, today the capital of the independent Republic of Moldova.