07/10/2022 - Romania’s longest-running film gathering brings more than 100 documentaries to its Sibiu audience this year

After two pandemic-ridden editions, the Sibiu-based Astra Film Festival is getting back to its former self for its 29^th iteration (9-16 October), in terms of both its scope and its varied range of sidebars. Approximately 100 films will be screened for the audience across several venues, including a full-dome theatre, while many of the selected movies will be available online (for viewers in Romania) for two weeks after the physical edition ends.

Ten films, brought together in the New Voices of Documentary Cinema Competition, will be in the running for the Astra Trophy: Erec Brehmer’s Who We Will Have Been (Germany), Laure Portier’s Soy Libre [+see also:
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film profile] (France/Belgium), Moriya Ben Avot’s Empty Handed (Israel), Zofia Kowaleska’s Only the Wind (Poland), Luka Papic’s Without (Serbia), Botond Püsök’s Too Close [+see also:
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film profile] (Romania/Hungary), András Visky’s Performing Juliet (USA), Diem Ha Le’s Children of the Mist (Vietnam), Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love (USA) and Jacquelyn Mills’ Geographies of Solitude (Canada).

Another ten features are competing for the main award in the Central & Eastern European Competition: Ana Gurdiş’s Our Eve (Moldova), Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop’s Ostrov – Lost Island [+see also:
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film profile] (Switzerland), Lukasz Kowalski’s The Pawnshop [+see also:
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film profile] (Poland), Francesco Montagner’s Brotherhood [+see also:
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interview: Francesco Montagner
film profile] (Czech Republic/Italy), Marija Zidar’s Reconciliation [+see also:
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film profile] (Slovenia/Serbia/Montenegro/Kosovo), Julianna Ugrin and Marton Vizkelety’s Holy Dilemma [+see also:
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film profile] (Hungary), Renato Borrayo Serrano’s Life of Ivanna [+see also:
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film profile] (Estonia/Finland/Norway/Russia), Nikolay Stefanov’s No Place for You in Our Town [+see also:
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film profile] (Bulgaria), Peter Triest’s A Parked Life (Netherlands/Belgium) and Alexandra Gulea’s Flying Sheep (Germany/Romania).

In the Romanian Competition, which welcomes documentaries depicting Romanian issues, even if the directors and the production companies are of a different nationality, the festival has selected 11 titles: Attila Szabó and Anikó Nagy Mára’s My Home, My Home (Hungary), Iulian Manuel Ghervas and Adina Popescu’s Eagles from Ţaga [+see also:
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film profile] (Romania/Slovakia), Raluca David’s Waves on Dry Soil (Romania), Dragoş Zămosteanu’s In Search of the Engineer Dragomirescu (Romania), Armine Vosganian’s Memories from the Community – Gheorgheni and Frumoasa (Romania), Clara Kleininger’s No Elephant in the Room (Romania/Poland), Dragoş Hanciu’s The Man and His Shadow (Romania), Csibi László’s Rear Entrance to Socialism (Romania), Cătălina Tesar and Dana Bunescu’s The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters [+see also:
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film profile] (Romania), Mircea Gherase’s The Road Ahead: Terra Banatica (Romania) and Róbert Lakatos’s Whose Dog Am I? [+see also:
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film profile] (Hungary/Romania).

Finally, the Docschool Competition proposes a documentary feature, Eric Esser’s Family Love – My Grandpa, National Socialism and Me [+see also:
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film profile] (Germany), along with 12 short films.

For the 29^th edition, the festival is launching a special programme dedicated to investigative journalism, dubbed Focus/Investigation, with several extensive news reports in the selection. There couldn’t be a better moment for this, as the European Union has recently started investigating a dubious practice undertaken by several traditional political parties that pay, through various intermediaries and questionable methods, popular Romanian TV channels to turn a blind eye to corruption issues and to sing the praises of those parties’ successes.

The selection also offers several thematic sidebars – for example, Faces of War or Decided Death – which will be accompanied by lectures and talks. Renowned British filmmaker Nick Broomfield will be celebrated in a retrospective, and after a two-year break, Astra Film Junior will be back to screen dozens of documentaries targeted at children of various ages.