07/10/2024 - The Romanian gathering will showcase “the cinema of truth” from 20-27 October, offering four competitive sections and a host of thematic sidebars for all generations

Romania’s longest-running film gathering, the Astra Film Festival (20-27 October, Sibiu), seems more determined than ever to attract the local audiences with what the organisers call “the cinema of truth”. Besides four competitions, detailed below, the festival offers various thematic sidebars – for example, “East to West”, “Family Portraits” and “Vulnerable Destinies”. The event also provides a generous selection of documentaries for children and teenagers, with other films being screened in a full-dome cinema.

Ten first, second or third features will be vying for the Astra Trophy, the top award in the New Voices in Documentary Cinema Competition: Alexander Horwath's Henry Fonda for President [+see also:
film review
interview: Alexander Horwath
film profile] (Austria/Germany), Farahnaz Sharifi's My Stolen Planet [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Germany/Iran), Narges Kalhor's Shahid [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Germany), Klára Tasovská's I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+see also:
film review
interview: Klára Tasovská
film profile] (Austria/Czech Republic/Slovakia), Maka Gogaladze's Ever Since I Knew Myself [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Georgia), Maria Stoianova's Fragments of Ice [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Norway/Ukraine), Oksana Karpovych's Intercepted [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Canada/France/Ukraine), Paulo Carneiro's Savanna and the Mountain [+see also:
film review
interview: Paulo Carneiro
film profile] (Portugal/Uruguay), Nelson Makengo's Rising up at Night [+see also:
film review
interview: Nelson Makengo
film profile] (Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Congo/Qatar) and Elizabeth Nichols' Flying Lessons (USA).

A further 11 films will be locking horns in the Central and Eastern European Competition: Elvis Lenić's Ship (Croatia), Luka Beradze's Smiling Georgia [+see also:
film review
interview: Luka Beradze
film profile] (Georgia/Germany), Kristine Nrecaj and Birthe Templin's House with a Voice (Germany), Grit Lemke's We Call Her Hanka (Germany), Olha Zhurba's Songs of Slow Burning Earth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olha Zhurba
film profile] (Denmark/France/Sweden/Ukraine), Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčík's Photophobia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pe…
film profile] (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Ukraine), Aslkod Kurov and Anonymous1's Of Caravan and the Dogs [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Germany), Lidia Duda's Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lidia Duda
film profile] (Czech Republic/Poland), Radu Ciorniciuc and Lina Vdovîi's Tata [+see also:
film review
interview: Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
film profile] (Romania), Apolena Rychlíková's Limits of Europe [+see also:
film review
interview: Apolena Rychlíková
film profile] (Czech Republic/France/Slovakia), and Ioana Grigore's Leo Records: Strictly for Our Friends [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Romania).

The Romanian Competition comes with four world premieres, among them Tudor Platon's sophomore directorial effort, An Almost Perfect Family [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Romania), and veteran director Copel Moscu's Bloodied Photographs (Romania). Anelise Sălan's Forbidden (Romania), Dan Curean's Family Movies (Romania), Ana Lungu's Triton (Romania), Harald Friedl's 24 Hours (Austria), Ruxandra Gubernat's Imaginary Youth (Romania), Ilinca Călugăreanu's A Cautionary Tale (Romania/UK), Adrian Dohotaru's Zagor's Death (Romania), Diana Nicolae's Between Silence and Sin (Romania), Isabela Tent's Alice On & Off [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabela Tent
film profile] (Romania), Alexandra Gulea's Maia – Portrait with Hands (Germania/Romania) and Fecső Zoltán's As the Clock Runs (Romania) will also be in the running in this competition, which traditionally consists of films either produced or shot in Romania, or having a topic related to the country.

The festival also has a student-film contest, the Docschool Competition, which is mainly composed of short films produced by various European film schools. This year, there will also be a feature competing for the award, Jaroslav Beran's Return to Life (Czech Republic), and a medium-length documentary, Daniel Țîcu's Night All Day (Moldova).