For five days, between October 23-27, the city of Iași experienced an impressive literary effervescence, thanks to the 12th edition of the Iași International Festival of Literature and Translation (FILIT), a festival that brought together hundreds of guests from brand from all over the globe.
Hundreds of high school students present at the meetings with FOTO FILIT writers
It was gratifying that the dozens of cultural activities within FILIT, held both in Iași and in other towns in Iași county, had thousands of participants of all ages and many young people. Moreover, the numerous volunteers from FILIT were also young people attached to literature.
During the five days of FILIT, it was a wonderful normality to constantly see people queuing up to buy books and get autographs from their favorite writers.
At the FILIT Evenings, held at the “Vasile Alecsandri” National Theater in Iasi and where there were meetings with the great writers Pascal Bruckner, Zeruya Shalev, Clara Usón, Abdulrazak Gurnah (Nobel Prize laureate) and Colm Tóibín, all seats were reserved and occupied three weeks before the start of the festival.
“Iasi becomes the literary capital of Romania”said the famous French writer Pascal Bruckner, on the first day of FILIT. And Pascal Bruckner is right. The city of Iasi is one with a propensity for literature and culture, it has a long tradition in this regard. And FILIT is every year the most important literary event in Romania. Iasi breathes and lives literature in the most beautiful sense of the phrase.
Since October 2023, thanks to FILIT, Iasi has been included in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the “Literature” category. And in this honorable network that includes only a few hundred cities around the world, in Romania there is only Cluj-Napoca, in the “Cinema” category. And that says a lot about the level reached by the city of Iași regarding literary activities.
And it is safe to say that this year’s edition of FILIT was a truly stellar one, both in terms of the famous guest writers and in terms of the density and intensity of the many events within the festival, as well as the interactions superb between the guests and the audience. Thanks to FILIT, Romanians’ appetite for literature is growing gratifyingly.
High school students from Iasi have a passion for literature in their DNA
And the passion of the people of Iași for literature was seen as palpable and gratifying as possible from the first day of FILIT. Relevant in this sense was the meeting of the students from the Iași National College with two highly acclaimed authors, and I named here Matei Vișniec and the poet Bogdan O. Popescu. It is so inspiring and motivating to see for two and a half hours hundreds of high school students captivated by the dialogue, involved in the dialogue with the writers, to see high school students asking the two authors very good and well-documented questions, without anything prosaic, without anything superficial. A concrete and tangible proof of the fact that high school students from Iași have a passion for literature in their DNA.
In Piața Unirii in Iasi, at Casa FILIT, the abundance of events was impressive, with many quality discussions with dozens of writers from the country and abroad.
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The National Theater of Iasi full at the meeting with Pascal Bruckner PHOTO FILIT jpg
Moreover, throughout the five days of FILIT there were frequent meetings between writers and readers, autograph sessions and creative workshops. Another very interesting and pleasant detail: such open communication between great writers and readers. And it’s wonderful to see famous authors like Pascal Bruckner or Abdulrazak Gurnah signing autographs for hours with a smile on their face, without anything formal, but with a lot of warmth and talking to each of the readers standing in line. Another example-pleading that the world of literature is so special in the most beautiful sense.
“I wish we had a festival like this in Barcelona too”
And not only the readers were excited about FILIT, but also the great guest writers. And an example in this sense is the well-known Spanish writer Clara Usón, winner of the prestigious Premio de la Crítica, a literary distinction awarded annually to the best novel written in the Spanish language from around the world.
“I am very impressed. I wish we had a festival like this in my city, and I live in Barcelona”said Clara Usón after the second FILIT evening.
And Abdulrazah Gurnah, Pascal Bruckner and Colm Tóibín confessed to me, before the interviews they gave me for “Adevărul”, that they are extremely pleased to see how much interest in literature there is in Iasi, a superb city in who would like to spend more days.
The festival is truly a delight. And the variety of events was also something to everyone’s taste.
Exhibition with the voices of war in Ukraine
There were also several exhibitions within FILIT. And one of them, varnished in the very special space at the House of Museums in Iași, was “Voices of War”. A different kind of exhibition that produced many sensations and emotions for those present.
Concretely, “Voices of War” is an immersive audio installation that tries to reproduce sonically and emotionally the regime of terror endured by ordinary citizens of Ukraine, faced with continuous bombings and a state of siege. The concept, which belongs to the artist Cosmin Perța, relies on the idea of the fragility of the being opposed to the absurdity of war, a voluntary human action meant to end the lives of other innocent human beings, without any other justification than the political one. The installation consists of the editing and collage of several authentic recordings from the bombing of the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye, made by the Ukrainian musician and artist Denys Vasyliev. Voices were added to them, but the sounds were not stylized and no other effects were added, relying on a more natural approach to the sounds of war. Denys Vasyliev recorded these sounds, in total darkness, risking his life, outside the bomb shelter. That’s why darkness is an important part of the installation, in order to reproduce as faithfully as possible the context in which these sounds were heard.
Poetry from evening to morning
Every event within FILIT was something unique and special, from the contemporary dance show “Ochiul ciorchine” to the debates with writers and the byron DUO concert.
Unforgettable was also the “White Night of Poetry”, which lasted from Friday, October 26 at 10 p.m. until the next morning at four o’clock. Dozens of poets recited to a captivated audience for hours.
This year’s edition of FILIT was once again a success. And here an essential merit goes to the four people behind this festival, which has become one of the most important in Europe. We are talking about the founding members Dan Lungu, Florin Lăzărescu and Lucian Dan Teodorovici and Amelia Gheorghiţă, the very involved, passionate and dedicated PR of the festival.
We should also not forget the numerous extremely important volunteers who put a lot of soul into making everything go as it should.
In the end, the only regret is that FILIT only lasts five days. Because the Iași International Festival of Literature and Translation creates a wonderful positive addiction.
* Move made with the support of New Design Composite
