Schedule:

4:00 PM: War boy

Fall of 1944. World War II is closing to an end. Nicu, a teenager, embarks on a journey through the wilderness of the Apuseni Mountains, in Western Romania, trying to save the horses of his family. He is very attached to his horses caring and talking to them. When a group of wounded German soldiers arrive in the village and begin preparations to retreat, Nicu's horses are taken to help carry men and war equipment. Desperate to save his horses, Nicu steals back his horses and runaways in the forest planning to take them East, over the mountain, to his uncle. On his way through the wild landscape, Nicu meets James, a wounded American pilot who was shot down during a raid bombardment.

Director Marian Crișan
Born in 1976, Marian Crișan received his bachelor Degree in Film and TV Directing at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC) in 1999. With MEGATRON, he won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.

7:00 PM: Horia

Restless teenager Horia takes off on his father’s old motorbike in a cross-country journey to reunite with his love. On the road, he is joined by Stela, a sassy 13-year-old, and an unlikely friendship blooms. “For me,” Ana-Maria Comănescu explains, ”HORIA’s story is about adventure, discoveries and friendship. The film’s atmosphere is colorful, lively, sunny, filled with music, lots of landscapes and endless roads, in a Romanian modern reinterpretation of the American road movies of the 1960s and 1970s.”

Director Ana-Maria Comănescu
Ana-Maria Comănescu is a Romanian screenwriter and director based in Bucharest. She made three short films during her studies at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC), all screened and awarded in various European student film festivals.  While writing and developing her debut feature project, HORIA, she participated in multiple film workshops and pitching markets, such as Sarajevo Talents in 2017 and MIDPOINT Feature Launch in 2019. In 2022, she started her Ph.D. in Cinema and became an assistant professor of Directing at UNATC.