BUZZ CEE: When art films meet southeastern Romania

Oana Vasiliu 25/07/2017 | 11:10

At the beginning of the month, the second edition of Buzau International Film Festival (BUZZ CEE) took place in the city of Buzau, where the city’s cultural agenda doesn’t seem to be very wide. The festival aims to promote quality productions from the region and to bring to Buzau films that rarely make their way to the big screens in Romania, offering the public the possibility to have a direct taste of CEE cinema.

Most of the projections where in the local theatre hall, while the movie-goers attended the screenings, having also a great contribution to the Q&A sessions. In their official communication, BUZZ CEE team says that this is a project that aims, primarily, to facilitate the public’s access to culture, to develop the public’s habit of watching films in the cinema hall and to nurture the interest towards taking part in large scale cultural events. And this is something that I noticed in the Q&A sessions. People have tones of curiosities about how a movie was made, what’s the distribution process, why you don’t see something on TV, and other technical questions.

Out of the 1600+ films entered in the BUZZ CEE official selection, film critics Florin Barbu, Cristi Marculescu and Bogdan Besliu, the festival’s selectors, have chosen a number of 29 movies from 16 countries, to compete for the festival awards.

“This year, we offer a balanced competition, with films covering all audience categories, and we are very glad to have had so many films from so many countries enter the competition. This shows us that BUZZ CEE successfully fulfils its purpose of promoting and supporting the movie industry in the region. We eagerly await the audience in the cinema halls. We hope they fully enjoy the films, alongside us, and appreciate the creativity and quality of the selected productions,explained the selection Aurelian Nica, the artistic director for BUZZ CEE.

At this edition, a retrospective of Nae Caranfil’s movies was presented, and at some of the screenings the film director was there. Most of the audience was already familiar with Nae Caranfil’s masterpieces, which made the Q&A sessions more interesting.

“We seek films that entertain, inform, create defining stories and break conventions. Our goal is to showcase and promote these stories and further shed a positive light on our region and its creativity. Either feature films, short films or documentaries, they can all find their place at BUZZ CEE,” according to a post an international website which promotes film festivals all over the world. And this is the exact atmosphere I found in the small city of Buzau. For six days, the locals have seen over 50 movies, while the festival-goers number was over 5,000.

The best feature film award went to Boy on the bridge, a very emotional Cyprus based drama, which was very acclaimed also by the public. In a seemingly idyllic Cyprus village, twelve year-old Socrates finds himself involved in a murder investigation that will tear his life, and the lives of his family apart, says the synopsis  of the movie.

At this edition, a special prize was offered to The Letterbox, another acclaimed movie from the competition. Also, The Letterbox had it’s official European premiere at BUZZ CEE. This movie tells the story of Adem, who has a traffic accident while travelling to begin his military service. The Letterbox, directed by Barış Kırımşelioğlu, features as a lead the already known actor Ismail Demirci, famous for the role of sultan Murad in the popular Turkish TV show Kösem.

Editor’s note: a big congratulations for the entire team of BUZZ CEE and their great ambition to set up a festival in a city where cultural agenda is basically non-existent. Also, the fact that they can rely on the support of local authorities deserves another warm congratulations. Sadly, not all the local authorities from Romania, both city halls and county’s councils have understood that part of the education of the locals can be provided by the cultural acts. And exposing the inhabitants to international stories help them broaden their horizons and perspectives. Once again, congratulations!

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