With a program consisting of approximately 200 events, in 50 locations, Europalia becomes this year Europalia Romania.

With each edition, the European festival Europalia presents art through multidisciplinary programs for 4 months, in Belgium and other countries in Europe. Performing arts, visual arts, music, literature, film and conferences gather under the roof of the festival, giving the public a true demonstration of European culture.

This year, the festival runs between 02.10.2019 and 2.02.2020, and the focus is on Romania. One of the key points of this edition is a retrospective centered around Constantin Brâncuși. It includes a series of events, such as: the most complex exhibition on Brâncuși in the last 25 years, a presentation of the Brâncuși studio in BOZAR, Brussels, performances inspired by Constantin Brâncuși’s art done by Romanian and Belgian artists etc..

The Europalia film program is a very complex one, ranging from films for the general public, to historical documentaries, experimental films and video art.

The Videograms of a Nation program offers an incursion into the last 100 years of Romanian cinema. Moreover, it includes conferences, Q&A sessions and masterclasses.

Among the invited directors is Andrei Ujică, whose film The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu is presented at the festival. Andrei Ujică will hold a masterclass on his working method and addressed topics. Even more, he agreed to present, exclusively, a small part of his still-unreleased project, Things We Said Today, a reconstitution of the biggest Beatles concert in the US.

There will be also the masterclass on Romanian animation and its history since the 1920s and until now, held by Matei Branea, and the masterclass by Andrei Ujică and Johan Grimonprez, moderated by Dominique Nasta (professor of film studies at ULB).

Other events within Europalia Romania are:

– Open debate: TOUCH ME NOT – The Politics of the Body, in the presence of director Adina Pintilie and the protagonists;

– Incursion into Romanian documentary cinema, conference held by Adina Brădeanu;

– Screening of I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, followed by a discussion between director Radu Jude and film critic Andrei Gorzo;

– History of Romanian Fiction Cinema: Lecture and Short Films, conference held by Gabriela Filippi and Radu Toderici, where the public has access to a collection of video essays from leading Romanian film critics and academics to accompany a retrospective of Romanian cinema.

Among the films presented are Where Are You, Bucharest? (dir. Vlad Petri), Soldiers. Story from Ferentari (dir. Ivana Mladenovic), This Is It (dir. Thomas Ciulei), Several Conversations About a Very Tall Girl (dir. Bogdan Theodor Olteanu), Monsters. (dir. Marius Olteanu), Toto and His Sisters (dir. Alexander Nanau) etc., but also short films followed by debates on Romanian cinema and its evolution. Almost all films are followed by Q&A sessions with the directors or members of the crew.

The Europalia program also explores the area of visual arts and video art, offering the public a retrospective exhibition of Ion Grigorescu, Romanian contemporary artist, known for his works that go beyond traditional conventions. Ion Grigorescu’s art goes from painting to photography, video or performance with ease and naturalness.

Kinema Ikon, the oldest experimental art group in Romania, is also present with a screening of some of the experimental films made between 1970-1989, and presented exclusively in Amsterdam, for the first time, at the Europalia festival.

The Europalia Romania festival takes place between 02.10.2019 – 2.02.2020, in Belgium and the Netherlands. For more details and the full program, go to Europalia.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.