Astra Film Cinematheque reopens its doors this summer and returns in June with four of the best documentary films awarded at the last edition of the festival.
Astra Film Cinematheque, an old project
The program begins on Thursday, June 6, with the screening of the documentary Amar (2023), by Diana Gavra, and continues every Thursday of the month with other films applauded at AFF2023: The sweet kiss of the earth (2023), by Gautier Gumpper, The Wind of Change (2022), by Nikoloz Bezhanishvili and The Place Where Nobody Says “I Love You” (2023), by Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento. The screenings will take place in Sibiu, at Sala Astra Film Cinema, Piața Mică no. 11.
Cinemateca Astra Film is an Astra Film program initiated within the Sibiu European Capital Program 2007. This summer, it will take place every Thursday, from 6:00 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the cinema on the evening of the screening. The price of a ticket is 10 lei for adults, and 5 lei for pensioners, pupils and students. For reservations, call 0751166516. Access will be from 5:45 p.m.
Astra Film Cinematheque program in June
Thursday, June 6, 2024, 6:00 p.m. | Amar (2023), directed by Diana Gavra
Production Romania-Spain, the documentary lasts 125 minutes and presents the story of pickpockets with experience in most European countries, for whom this activity is elevated to the rank of art. We thus penetrate into their personal and professional lives and discover the mentality and spirit behind these types of theft. Diana Gavra's film presents pieces of real life, modes of operation, including the study of the “victim”, showing the way pickpockets see the world around them. Moments of irresistible humor alternate with downright dramatic sequences, loaded with pure emotion.
At last year's anniversary edition of the Astra Film Festival, Amar was awarded the New Perspectives Award. According to the jury's motivation, the documentary built, with tenacity and courage, “a relationship of trust and intimacy with the protagonists to get closer to a group of people for whom pickpocketing is – as they describe – 'a way of life'” . With objectivity, without sensationalism, giving the heroes space to honestly express their complicated lives – this film masterfully reveals the personality of the people behind the stereotypes”.
Thursday, June 13, 6:00 p.m. | The sweet kiss of the earth (2023), dir. Gautier Gumpper
The French production presents, for 108 minutes, the peaceful and constructive protest of Ștefan Hladiuc, who felt wronged by a court in Romania and came to find justice at the ECHR. He chose to live under a bridge in Strasbourg, where he works from morning to night on a patch of land, which he transformed into a real flower garden, an oasis of beauty, which comforts both the gaze of passers-by and his inner peace . A unique and special story, a production with a philosophical edge, through the way of expressing the values that the main character has.
Gautier Gumpper's film was considered the Best Documentary Film of the Romania competition. According to the members of the jury, “it is a film that presents the beauty of life born from struggle, from the desire to preserve dignity, individual integrity. Using a formally restrained, austere style, a narrative of life on the fringes of society is progressively and masterfully developed. With dignity and a shaping poetic force, using cinematic means with virtuosity, the author creates that affective intimacy with the protagonist and makes the voiceless heard.”
Thursday, June 20, 6:00 p.m. | The Wind of Change (2022), director Nikoloz Bezhanishvili
Produced in Georgia, Nikoloz Bezhanishvili's film, presented at AFF 2023, is 94 minutes long and focuses on a group of nostalgic Stalinists from the town of Gori, Stalin's birthplace, outraged by the demolition of the former dictator's statue. They start a rehabilitation campaign, trying to oppose this “sacrilege”. The Wind of Change is a documentary that, at times, seems bordering on fiction, with many hilarious situations and sad characters, about a generation trapped in the past who does not notice that the world around them has changed irrevocably.
Nikoloz Bezhanishivili's film was designated Best Documentary in the Central and Eastern Europe competition section. “Weaving a fine line in portraying the men and women on whom history has left its mark, this documentary is bold yet tender, presenting its characters with cold empathy: neither as heroes, nor as anti-heroes, nor as victims.” explained the members of the jury when awarding the prize.
Thursday, June 27, 6:00 p.m The place where no one says “I love you” (2023), dir. Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento.
Belgium-France production (93 minutes), the film is a participatory foray into the Cácua Amerindian community in Colombia that brings to light, with lucidity and sensitivity, the invisible wounds of colonialism. Sarmiento sets out to conduct informal ethnographic research into the causes of the alarming waves of suicide among Colombia's indigenous population. Under the appearance of a coming-of-age, the film gradually becomes the arena of an intra- and transcultural dialogue, complex and emotional, about identity, love, traditions and language. The problem of (mis)understanding the other is staged in a poetic, sensory and intimate key, finally touching the notes of a deep existential search.
The film by Amerindian director Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento was named Best Film in the Emerging Voices of Documentary competition section. “A picturesque, moving, multi-layered film; the director's personal journey in search of his own identity opens a narrative about the effects of colonialism. This oscillation between personal experience and history is approached from an angle that is both intimate and charming as well as comical (…) At the base of the film is an increasingly strong friendship between the director and his “guide” (…) a journey started with humility and clarity, masterfully documented and narrated”, reasoned the jury, who particularly appreciated “the chance to take part in the director's discoveries about a culture on the verge of extinction, which resides in his very DNA”.
