{"id":10610,"date":"2026-06-15T05:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=10610"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:02:14","slug":"romanian-film-review-the-charms-of-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=10610","title":{"rendered":"Romanian Film Review \u2013 The Charms of June"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/tiff.ro\/en\">TIFF<\/a> time again. Romania\u2019s biggest international film fest has just started and will take over Cluj-Napoca in the next ten days. The months of back-to-back events are so busy; TIFF is happening right on the heels of just-wrapped <a href=\"https:\/\/estefilm.ro\/\">ESTE FILM Festival<\/a>, with a killer selection this year (Angela Schanelec\u2019s <em>Meine Frau Weint\/ My Wife<\/em> Cries is such an odd delight that I doubt it will have a local distributor) and the <a href=\"https:\/\/filmedefestival.ro\/american-independent-ff\/en\/\">American Independent Film Festival<\/a>, with really good, more mainstream pics, like Kelly O\u2019Sullivan and Alex Thompson\u2019s coming-of-age wonder <em>Mouse. <\/em>Good news about this one, it looks like <a href=\"https:\/\/badunicorn.ro\/film\/mouse\">it\u2019s coming soon<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>Until I will dedicate space to TIFF\u2019s offerings, here are tips and joys to bookend the festival.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with a recent TIFF alumnus, Igor Cobileanski\u2019s <em>Comatogen<\/em>, which you can still catch in some cinemas (for instance in Timi\u0219oara). The story of a single mother grappling to protect her teenage son, the drama plays out like a thriller across a few days and told from the different point of views of the characters. <em>Comatogen <\/em>is gripping, full of ominous dread, and keeps you guessing at all turns. A solid recommendation.<\/p>\n<p>To stay in Cluj, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cinemavictoria.ro\/pride-on-screen\/\">cinema Victoria<\/a> is celebrating queer filmmaking and filmmakers on the occasion of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pride_Month\">Pride month<\/a> and will jump back in right after TIFF (until then it hosts only fest screenings). I am delighted to spot again C\u00e9line Sciamma\u2019s <em>Portrait of a Lady on Fire<\/em> (impassioned, intelligent, and so beautiful) and also Xavier Dolan\u2019s <em>Matthias &amp; Maxime<\/em> (tender, wise, and more restrained than his usual showy fare). A programme of shorts in solidarity with Palestine is the more urgent entry.<\/p>\n<p>And on all screens, one my favourite German directors is present with <em>Miroirs No. 3<\/em>. Christian Petzold has been subverting genre for decades, and his sharp, intriguing imagination has created so many thrilling films, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0806686\/\"><em>Yella<\/em><\/a> (2007) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2178941\/?ref_=fn_t_1\"><em>Barbara<\/em><\/a> in 2012 (both carried by the remarkable Nina Hoss) to his previous release, the fantastic love story\/ comedy of manners\/ environmental dystopia\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26440619\/?ref_=fn_t_1\"><em>Roter Himmel\/<\/em> <em>Afire<\/em><\/a>. <em>Miroirs No. 3<\/em> is less immediately appealing, a more subdued and mysterious drama about trauma and loss, with the usual spare dialogue and surprising twists. The more I think of it, the more I appreciate its courage to leave much unanswered, inviting the audience to give into Petzold\u2019s trademark hypnotic, beguiling mood.<\/p>\n<p>Happy June!<\/p>\n<p><em>By Ioana Moldovan, film columnist: <\/em><a href=\"mailto:ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com\"><em>ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/a><br \/>\n<em>Picture info &amp; credit: still from <\/em>Miroirs No. 3 <em>\/\/ Hans Fromm, (c) Schramm Film \/\/ courtesy of Independen\u021ba Film<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-embed-field-provider-youtube video-embed-field-responsive-video\">\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s TIFF time again. Romania\u2019s biggest international film fest has just started and will take over Cluj-Napoca in the next ten days. The months of back-to-back events are so busy; TIFF is happening right on the heels of just-wrapped ESTE FILM Festival, with a killer selection this year (Angela Schanelec\u2019s Meine Frau Weint\/ My Wife [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}