The film follows famed ghost and demon hunter Louis (Armand Assante) as he takes on a new case in modern day Romania. Hired by the mysterious heiress of the Zalesky Castle, the hardened American embarks on this adventure with an Israeli journalist (Lior Ashkenazi), two Korean reality television stars in search of sensational ghost stories, and a young, skeptical guide Sorana (Raluca Aprodu). As he starts hunting the evil lurking in plain daylight in the frightened community around the Transylvanian castle, Louis faces one of the biggest challenges of his career and life.

"Untamed Romania" explores "one of the wildest and most beautiful parts of Europe", from the mysterious Danube Delta to the unknown Carpathian forests. Wolves, bears, and lynx roam the vast forests where almost all the original flora and fauna still exist left untouched since time immemorial. There is no other location of comparable size with such pristine nature in Europe. This unique documentary is narrated by award-winning Romanian film and stage actor Victor Rebengiuc.

Unmarried Mara has mysteriously fallen pregnant. This poses a problem for her fellow residents of the small fishing village on the Danube delta, where Europe's second longest river enters the Black Sea, and religion mixes with superstition like earth with water. Expelled from her village, Mara finds employment at the nearby spa hotel Tekir where infertile women are treated with the sacred Danube mud. When her world collides with that of the well-to-do, eccentric cosmopolitan Lili, magic combines with power and tradition with modernity to become the answer to Lili's desire to have children – and Mara's "immaculate" conception.

Costi leads a peaceful life. At night he likes to read stories to his 6-year-old son to help him sleep. Their favorite is Robin Hood, and Costi sees himself as a similar hero - righter of wrongs and defender of the oppressed. One evening, his neighbor Negoescu pays him an unexpected visit and shares a secret. He suspects that his great-grandfather buried a treasure in his garden at the time of the Communist takeover in the 1940s. If Costi hires a metal detector to help locate the treasure, he will give him half of whatever they get. The two accomplices have one weekend to locate the loot and many obstacles in their path. With each layer of soil they unearth, memories of the past and entire chapters of Romanian history come to light. Porumboiu’s film adds intricate touches of the uncanny to everyday life, prompting us to question what unfathomable treasure we are hunting ourselves. Winner of A Certain Regard the 2015 International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Prize at Cannes.

The feature tells the story of Gabriel (Stefan Iancu), a teenager who wants to be a priest and has been recently admitted to a theological seminary. Trying to fit in first, he is fast to discover a world of fear and abuse. Lying, cheating and betraying are things the freshmen have to master in order to survive their seniors’ constant bullying and the game of power and manipulation fed by a tough teacher (remarkably played by Vlad Ivanov). This caustic coming of age movie calls to mind boarding-school-set movies where oppression and brutality are widespread.

After having taken 10 years to film, "One Step behind the Seraphim" swept Romania’s Gopo Awards in 2018. It won 8 statuettes, including the most important trophies: Best Film, Best Film Director, Best Script, Best Debut Feature, Best Leading Actor, Best Picture and Young Hope, together with the Award of the Romanian Society of Cinematographers. It also received the Audience Award at Transylvania Film Festival.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest Daniel Sandu.

Length: 150 minutes

In 1995, Seattle-based director and storyteller Bogdan was a teenager. He is now forty-one. After 23 years as an immigrant in the US, Bogdan comes back to Bulgaria for the first time. Who will he meet and where will his memories take him? Is his feeling truth, or is it just nostalgia?

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest Bogdan.

Friday, November 2, 7:00 PM

"Miss Christina" is the dramatization of a 1936 novella written by the famous Romanian author and historian of religions, Mircea Eliade. Considered the first Romanian title of the Gothic genre, the film brings its distinct supernatural touch, being deeply rooted in East-European folklore and pagan mythology. It tells the love story between a human and the vampire-like character of a gorgeous young woman who died a violent death in the bloody peasant revolts in Romania in 1907. Known in Romanian as a moroior a strigoi, Miss Christina comes back from the grave to seduce her niece's fiancé, Egor (played by Tudor Istodor), during his first visit to the countryside family mansion. The lady of the house (played by Maia Morgenstern) worships her dead sister’s memory, even to the detriment of her own daughter's sanity and safety. When Egor realizes that his fiancée's life is endangered by his unexplainable lust for Miss Christina, he decides to fight the moroi.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest Maia Morgenstern.

Length: 101 minutes

As miners in the Romanian town of Petrila go down the mine for the last time, artist and ex-miner Ion Barbu is working on his mission: preserving Petrila's coal mine as cultural heritage. But in accordance with EU agreements on the closure of the mine, the authorities are committed to demolishing it completely. This would bring an abrupt end to a history with which the mining community still feels a deep affinity, but one that doesn't appear to interest the politicians in the slightest. Barbu refuses to back down, doing all he can to keep the memories of the mine and the identity of his hometown alive. He covers the mine buildings in murals and organizes performances, street protests, an underground theatre festival and a clandestine film. His resolve is a match for that of his opponents, and his art, which samples freely from art history, is charged with an absurdism well suited to the situation. Nonetheless, his actions prove to be more than just a frivolous protest; they become a channel for the collective mourning of a redundant industry.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest Andrei Dăscălescu

A couple with longstanding marital issues lands at LAX after a getaway in Europe. For a few years now, Stefania has been working a job she detests and Dan hasn't worked at all. Their palpable strain is only made worse when a Danish vagabond asks for a ride to the busiest freeway in Los Angeles. Stefania doesn’t want to have anything to do with the hippie looking wanderer, but her husband Dan, much to his wife's horror, offers to bring this total stranger to their home. How will their encounter with this uncanny character affect their marriage? The director invites you on a 3 day journey, seen through Stefania’s eyes, to view and discover that desired change doesn’t always come in the package that we want or expect.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with special guest Elena Beuca.