Festivals 2: Astra Film Festival
I was there last year, in Sibiu, where the Astra Film Festival this year can celebrate its 20th edition from October 14-20.
The international competitive section of 9 films includes ”Leviathan” by Castaing-Taylor and Paravel, Marc Schmidt’s ”Matthews Laws”, Philibert’s ”La Maison de la Radio” and Wang Bing’s ”Three Sisters”, whereas a Central & Eastern European competition have Nikolaus Geyrhalter on the list with ”Danube Hospital” as well as Lina Luzyte’s ”Igrushki” (photo), a film that festivals have paid far too little attention to.
If you want to become acquainted with new Romanian documentaries, Sibiu is the place to go – there is a competitive as well as a non-competitive section. A press release proudluy states: Astra Film Festival continues with the tradition from the past editions and brings to the forefront Romanian personalities captured in extraordinary stories, which are told in cinematographic language. The most awaited Romanian productions of the moment are screened in world premiere at the anniversary 20th edition of Astra Film Festival, one of the most important documentary film festivals in Europe, which, over the past two decades, has promoted Romanian non-fictional film in the international context.
The program of the Romanian films from the 2013 AFF selection introduces an exciting cinematographic 7 day time travel through the non-fictional Romania, with its unusual stories and peculiar characters, transposed on the large screen through observational or television documentaries, essays, docudrama or auteur films.
