Poet Ana Blandiana will be the guest of honor at the third edition of Astra Film Chisinau, which will take place between November 14-16 at Cinema Loteanu. She will participate in the screening of the biographical documentary " Between Silence and Sin ", by Diana Nicolae, on Friday November 15, and after the film the audience will have the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with the poet who recently received one of the most prestigious European prizes for literature, The Princess of Asturias Prize for Letters 2024, in a ceremony presided over by the Royal Family of Spain. Astra Film Festival returns to Chisinau with a selection of the best documentary films, including " Alice On & Off ", considered the best documentary film of the year (Romania Section) at the edition that ended a week ago in Sibiu .
Astra Film Chisinau is an event organized by Astra Film/CNM Astra and the Department for Relations with the Republic of Moldova (DRRM) within the Government of Romania. Details about the program of the third Astra Film Chisinau edition, on the astrafilm.ro website .
All films from Astra Film Chisinau will be screened at Cinema Loteanu. Access is free, and people who want to participate are asked to reserve zero-value tickets here: https://t.ly/-voDA.
AF Chisinau also includes a DocTalk discussion starting from a masterpiece film about Umberto Eco's library, concerts and documentaries for students. In addition, two workshops organized by UNATC Bucharest will take place at the Chisinau Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts: "Space and memory in documenting cities" (given by Ana Vlad), intended for students, and "A Journey into Documentary Cinema : Guided by Students", for high school students.
" We are returning to Chisinau with the same emotion, at a time when Romanians on both banks of the Prut want to look to the future with confidence. A future where we can better understand the world we live in and enjoy the miracle of every day. Documentary film has this gift: it shows us perspectives that we probably wouldn't have access to otherwise, and it keeps us together, fascinated by the spectacle of the world we live in ," said Dumitru Budrala, Astra Film Festival's founding director.
" The joint efforts of DRRM and Astra Film to realize, here, the third consecutive edition of Astra Film Chisinau, are directed towards the public of the Republic of Moldova, which we expect to enjoy the most carefully selected, award-winning documentary films and appreciated by the audience present at the 31st edition of the Astra Film Festival in Romania ", said Adrian Dupu, State Secretary of DRRM
AF Chisinau program
THURSDAY, November 14. In the opening of AF Chisinau (18:00) an impressive documentary is scheduled, which addresses an extremely sensitive topic, but which is so necessary to talk about: the vulnerability of minors. " Alice On & Off " (dir. Isabela Tant, Romania - 2024 | 86 min) presents the story of a young woman who becomes a mother at only 16 years old and marries a man 35 years older. The documentary won the award for Best Film at the Romanian Section of AFF2024, because it " brings to the fore a teenage artist who has become a mother, in a liminal, dark universe, full of risks and brutality " (from the jury's motivation) .
FRIDAY, November 15. From 16:00 we will be able to see the film "In the name of the earth" (dir. Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, Poland, Serbia, Lithuania - 2023 | 114 min), last year's proposal of Poland for the Oscar Award. The film, an adaptation of the novel "The Peasants", written by the Nobel Prize laureate WS Reymont, presents the Polish village of the 19th century and can be considered a combination between " Ion " and "The Murmurs", with Polish specificity. In the foreground is Jana, a very beautiful 19-year-old girl with a free spirit, who is not interested in land or wealth and who has a truly fairy-tale destiny.
And from 18:10 there will be a film-event, "Between silence and sin " (dir. Diana Nicolae, Romania, USA - 2024 | 98 min), a biographical documentary about the trying life and tumultuous career of the poet Ana Blandiana, banned by the communist dictatorship, before being officially recognized as a writer. After the screening, the public will be able to enter into a dialogue with Ana Blandiana , who recently received one of the most important European prizes for poetry, the Princess of Asturias Prize for Letters 2024, in a ceremony presided over by the Royal Family of Spain. The evening will end with a concert by the unmistakable Ada Milea .
On SATURDAY, November 16, three films will be screened. The first, from 16:15, is the documentary " Leo Records: Strictly for our friends" (dir. Ioana Grigore, România - 2024 | 70 min), which shows us the story of Leo, now a nice octogenarian and passionate about jazz, who dedicated his entire life to the promotion of experimental jazz music. Forced by the KGB to leave the USSR, he arrived in London in the 1970s, from where he broadcast jazz music on the BBC to tens of millions of people beyond the Iron Curtain.
The second, from 17:35, "Martirul Unirii" (dir. Mara Ionescu, Romania, 2024 | 57 min), is a documentary dedicated to the memory of Archpriest Alexandru Baltaga (1861–1941), one of the craftsmen of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania on 27 March 1918 and martyr of the Romanian Orthodox Church, recently canonized and soon honored as a saint in the calendar of the Romanian Patriarchate - a Trinitas TV project , financed by DRRM and carried out in partnership with the Metropolis of Bessarabia, the Institute of History of the State University of Moldova and TVR Moldova.
From 18:30, viewers will have the opportunity to get to know Umberto Eco's famous library, in the film " Umberto Eco - Biblioteca Lumii" (dir. Davide Ferrario, Italy - 2022 | 80 min), a fascinating documentary, which suggests that the immortals quests for knowledge and the secrets of the world hide in the depths of the library and the mind of Umberto Eco. The screening will be followed by a discussion, " The Age of Digital Feudalism" , about the impact of the digital age on the preservation/archiving and transmission of knowledge to future generations .
The Astra Film Junior documentary film education program includes 16 screenings for students of all ages
The organizers will also bring a collection of documentary films for children and adolescents, recently presented in Romania within the Astra Film junior educational program, dedicated to children and adolescents. The Astra Film Junior Chisinau screenings will take place daily, from Thursday, November 14 to Saturday, November 16, from 09:00, at Cinema Loteanu.
There will be titles such as " The Emotions of the Little Cub" (dir. Benoît Leva, France - 2021), " Food for Change (dir. Benoît Bringer, France , Sweden, Brazil - 2020), " Bachir In Wonderland" (dir. Els Duran and Evelien Vehof , The Netherlands - 2018), " Pien, Queen of the Bees" (dir. Ellen Vloet , The Netherlands - 2018), " Vis.Via ță" (dir. Ruxandra Gubernat , Romania - 2024), " The Girl Who Defies Gravity" (dir. Jens Pedersen , Denmark - 2017), "Teen Engineers" (dir. Aleksandra Skowron and Hanna Polak, Poland - 2020).
The detailed program can be consulted in the dedicated AF Chisinau section on the astrafilm.ro website and on Astra Film Festival's social media pages.
Media partners: TVR Moldova, Radio Chisinau, Vocea Bessarabiei Radio, Vocea Bessarabiei TV, National Ziarul, Deschide.md, IPN.md, Realitatea TV, NordNews, Ziua.md, One TV, Newstream.md, IaloveniOnline.md
