As every October, the quaint Romanian city of Sibiu is about to become the backdrop for the country’s Astra Film Festival (15-22 October), which seems determined to enthusiastically celebrate its impressive status as Romania’s longest-running film festival, with as many as 30 editions under its belt. Thirty-one features will be competing in the festival’s three feature-film competitions, while 13 shorts will be in the running for the award in the Docschool competition. This edition kicks off on Sunday with a work-in-progress version of André Singer’s newest documentary, Meeting Zelenskyy, but the event also comes with some unwanted attention generated by an official protest of the Romanian Orthodox Church regarding the screening of Alexandru Solomon’s newest documentary, Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alexandru Solomon
scheda film], at the festival, which prompted the festival to issue a press release stating that at Astra, freedom of speech “is not negotiable”.

As every year, ten films, brought together in the New Voices of Documentary Cinema Competition, will be vying for the Astra Trophy: Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento’s Adieu Sauvage [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento
scheda film] (Belgium/France); Helin Celik’s ANQA [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Austria/Spain); Vlad Petri’s Between Revolutions [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Vlad Petri
scheda film] (Romania/Croatia/Qatar/Iran); Elvis A-Liang Lu’s A Holy Family [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Taiwan/France); Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse and Quentin L'helgoualc'h’s Knit’s Island [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (France); Efthymia Zymvragaki’s Light Falls Vertical [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Spain/Germany/Italy/Netherlands); Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of All Lies (Morocco/Egypt/Saudi Arabia/Qatar); Christian Einshøj’s The Mountains [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Denmark); Mickaël Bandela’s One Mother (France); and Paul B Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Paul B. Preciado
scheda film] (France).

Ten further films will be competing in the Central and Eastern European Competition: Mstyslav Chernov's 20 Days in Mariupol [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Mstyslav Chernov
scheda film] (Ukraine), Bartłomiej Żmuda's God and Lunaparks Warriors (Poland), Otilia Babara's Love Is Not an Orange [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Otilia Babara
scheda film] (Belgium/Netherlands/Moldova/France), Suzana Dinevski's The Love Room (North Macedonia), Angie Vinchito's Manifesto (Russia), Nikola Boshnakov's My Uncle Luben [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nikola Boshnakov, Georgi-J…
scheda film] (Bulgaria/Germany), Nikoloz Bezhanishvili's The Northeast Winds [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Georgia), Mátyás Kálmán's Paying a Visit to Fortuna [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Hungary/Croatia), Marek Kozakiewicz's Silent Love [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Poland/Germany) and Alisa Kovalenko's We Will Not Fade Away [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Ukraine/France/Poland).

Besides Solomon's Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife, ten other features either produced or shot in Romania or having a topic related to the country will be competing in the Romania Competition: Diana Gavra's Amar (Romania/Spain), Gautier Gumpper's Earth's Sweet Kiss (France), Elena Rebeca Carini's The Land You Belong (Italy/Romania), Ovidiu Georgescu's The Memory of the Moment (Romania), Eugene Buică's Mrs. Buică (Romania), Daniel Ioan Bărnuţi and Alexandra Lizeta Bărnuţi's My Muslim Husband [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Romania), Carla-Maria Teaha's Nora (Romania), Şerban Georgescu's Our Daily Bread (Romania), Moscu Copel's Paradise of the Naives (Romania), and Iulia Rugină's Playback [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] (Romania).

Dozens of other movies will be shown in the Astra Film Junior sidebar, which is dedicated to children and teenagers, and in the full-dome selection.