Between 27 November and 1 December, the fifth edition of Spotlight: Romania Film Festival will take place. The theme of this edition is film and identity. The main focus is the impact of the Romanian revolution and the fall of communism on the identity of the younger generations. The festival takes place at multiple locations. On the 29th of November the movie The Paper Will Be Blue will be screened at Humanity House.
The Paper Will Be Blue (Hârtia va fi albastră) is a Romanian film from 2006 that is written and directed by Radu Muntean. The story is set on the 22nd and 23rd of December 1989, during the Romanian Revolution. The movie follows a militia group from which one member abandons the group to take part in the revolution. The film is shot with a handheld camera.
After the film screening there is a conversation with Alina Lupu and Alexandru Baciu. They will talk about the Romanian revolution, which will ultimately lead to the fall of communism, and the aftermath of this event. Subjects that will be discussed are the hopeful expectation after the fall of the Berlin wall en how Romanian society tried to catch up to the West. How this history is captured in Romanian contemporary cinema will also be examined.
Spotlight: Romania Film Festival takes place in The Hague since 2015 and presents every angle of Romanian arthouse cinema. More information about the festival can be found on their site or their facebook-event.
About the speakers
Alina Lupu is a Romanian born, Dutch-based, post-conceptual artist and writer. She has a background in psychology, photography and an incomplete education in fine arts. Earlier this year she released a publication entitled This is a Work of Fiction. The novella goes through real and imagined situations touching upon the fragility of the artistic profession and the many compromises that one is subjected to. Her work has infiltrated W139 in Amsterdam, Onomatopee in Eindhoven, Rheum Room in Basel and European Lab in Lyon, among others.
Alexandru Baciu is a Bucharest-based screenwriter and film director. As a scriptwriter, he worked together with Răzvan Rădulescu and Radu Muntean for The Paper Will Be Blue, Boogie and One Floor Below. All these films have been screened on multiple film festivals including Cannes. In 2011 Alex Baciu co-directed along with Radu Muntean, Visiting Room, a documentary produced by HBO Romania. Together with his wife Maria Popistașu, he co-directed The Seagull in 2017, a short based on a script by Maria Popistașu.
Program
20:15 – 22:15 Film screening and debate