The autumn season of the film program Documentary Mondays will cover four film screenings, followed by meetings and discussions with special guests.
The four films explore “lives transformed by the passage of time and relationships that endure or fall apart, following people confronting their own pasts and undergoing changes that force them to redefine their relationship with the world around them.”
The series opens on October 12 with Petr Záruba’s Kaprálová, a documentary about Czech composer Vítězslava Kaprálová. In 1937, at just 22, she left for Paris to continue her musical studies; three years later, her life came to a premature end. The film retraces her life through archival footage and letters she sent to her family in Czechoslovakia, while also exploring how her music is being rediscovered today by a new generation of performers. The documentary also features Czech conductor Alena Hron, who recorded Kaprálová’s complete orchestral works with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. Hron will attend the screening at the Czech Centre and take part in a Q&A with the audience afterwards.
Alena Hron Photo courtesy of the Czech Center
A week later, on October 19, the series showcases Michelle Memran’s The Rest I Make Up, a portrait of Cuban-American playwright María Irene Fornés, one of the leading figures in American experimental theatre. After dementia gradually forces her to give up writing, an unexpected friendship with filmmaker Michelle Memran rekindles her creative spontaneity and becomes the starting point for a collaboration filmed over several years. The screening will be followed by an online discussion with director Michelle Memran.
María Irene Fornés with her Obie award Photo courtesy of the Czech Center
On October 26, the program presents, in partnership with KineDok Romania, Miro Remo’s Better Go Mad in the Wild. Loosely inspired by Aleš Palán and Jan Šíbík’s book about people who have chosen to live in seclusion, the film follows two brothers who share the same farm and a life almost completely cut off from civilization, yet have very different ideas about the future. The documentary won the Crystal Globe at the 2025 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Still from ‘Better Go Mad in the Wild’
The season closes on November 2 with Rachel Tâpârjan’s Atât de familiar / Something Familiar, the feature-length debut of British-Romanian director Rachel Tâpârjan. While helping a woman find her biological mother, the filmmaker is drawn into her own family history and sets out to trace the sisters from whom she was separated. The film had its world premiere in the international competition at CPH 2026, and its preview screening at the Czech Centre will be followed by a discussion with members of the film crew.
Still from ‘Something Familiar’
The program runs at the Czech Centre in Bucharest from October 12 to November 2. Admission is free, with entry on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to available seating. The films are screened with English subtitles.
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