Chinese films in Romania and Romanian films in China have a history that deserves to be known. In the 60s and the 80s, Romanian films were the vehicles that brought to China the first kissing scenes, the first heroes to use a colorful language and broke out of the confines of socialist realism.
Being great box office successes, many of them were turned into cine-romans or radio plays. On the other hand, Chinese films were not that successful in Romania. Some exceptions are a ballet- film,
The White-Haired Girl, historical and martial arts films from the 70s and 80s, like
The Magic Braid attracted audiences that were seeking to see Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan on video cassettes. The first film that attracted Romanian audiences was
Red Sorghum - presented as a gala screening in Bucharest after having won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1987. After that moment, Zhang Yimou and actress Li Gong became well known stars.
In recent years, Romanian filmmakers and film scholars have completed studies at the Beijing Film Academy and Mugur Ciubăncan, a pop artist from Maramureş, became a star after his appearance in
A Song for Autumn and Radio China International produced a series of documentaries titled
Stories of Romanians in China. All these, as well as the partnerships between festivals such as Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF), Shanghai International Film Festival, Silk Road International Film Festival), suggests that the collaboration between the cinemas of the two countries will become more intense.
A round table on the subject will take place on June 6th at 15.00, at Casa TIFF (Gallery). The speakers will be the film critics WANG Yao,
Dana Duma,
Marian Țuțui and
Mihai Fulger.
For the entire duration of TIFF, from May 31st to June 9th, the exhibition of the private collection of researcher Wang Yao, along with posters offered by the Romanian National Film Archive, will present to the visitors posters, flyers, brochures from a multitude of Romanian film events in China over the past 50 years, printed material, as well as audio and video recordings, reflections of Romanian cinema in a remote mirror, will be open at Casa TIFF (Gallery). A presentation of the exhibition
A Brief History of Chinese-Romanian Film Communication will conclude the roundtable.
On the same day, Thursday, June 6th, at 17.00, at Casa TIFF (Gallery), specialists and classic films lovers can attend a masterclass offered by film restaurer XIANG Jiao, from China Film Archive, the head of the restauration project of
The Goddess (1934), directed by Wu Yonggang.
The
cine-concert of The Goddess, with live accompaniment by American guitarist Gary Lucas, will take place on June 5th, at 21.30 at the Piarist’s Church in Cluj- Napoca
The Focus China selection of films and events is co-presented with support from the Shanghai International Film Festival, Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance, and the Chinese Embassy to Romania, in association with China Film Archive, the National Film Archive and the Confucius Institute.
Details at:
www.tiff.ro
