Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Romania is the guest country of this year's Filmkunstfest MV

Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The guest country of this year’s Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Romania. During the festival from August 30th to September 4th, the south-eastern European country will be presented with 20 to 25 current productions, said the artistic director Volker Kufahl on Tuesday. There is also an exhibition by the Romanian photographer Ioana Moldovan in the Schleswig-Holstein House.

“The ‘Romanian film miracle’ will soon be celebrating major festival successes for almost two decades, but the cinema audience in Germany still doesn’t notice much of it,” said Kufahl. “Our task as a festival is to give our audience new access to this culturally extremely interesting country through a current selection of films.” The Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2021 went to the Romanian film “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” by director Radu Jude. In 2007, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days” by the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. The Golden Shell at the 2021 film festival in San Sebastián, Spain, went to “Crai Nou/Blue Moon” by Alina Grigore.

Also expected in Schwerin is the Romanian brass band Fanfare Cioc?rlia, whose unleashed brass music caused a sensation in the “Borat” films by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. According to the information, the band also played in “Gegen die Wand” by Fatih Akin and the black comedy film “El crimen ferpecto” by Alex de la Iglesia. The band will start their European tour on August 29th in the inner courtyard of the Schwerin Castle. According to Kufahl, partners of the film art festival this year are the Goethe Institute and the Romanian Cultural Institute.

The Filmkunstfest MV shows around 150 long and short films in ten sections. Prizes with a total value of 42,000 euros will be awarded in four competitions. This year’s guest of honor is actor Matthias Habich. A selection of his films will be presented in a homage. The film art festival usually takes place in May. In view of the corona pandemic, it was postponed to the end of August/beginning of September this year.