The 24th Transilvania International Film Festival in Cluj–Napoca was a success, which was evidenced by the sold-out halls—filled mainly with young people—but also by the crowded outdoor areas. By agreement with the Supreme, the weather was favorable to film fans. The city literally lived with the films: It was impossible to miss the decorations that announced the film marathon that was taking place here right now. And this is thanks to the founder and tireless organizer, producer and film director, a native of Cluj–Napoca, Tudor Giurgiu, who founded and leads this exhibition of film art. Over ten days, 200 films were screened, of which 172 were feature-length and 28 shorts. According to preliminary results, the event was attended by approximately 125,000 viewers. The screening of films in open spaces was very popular, whether it was on the Old Town Square of Piata Unirii, or in the Museum of Art or at Bánffy Castle.
The festival included many discussions on various topics, including master-classes, which perhaps inspired many future winners of Academy Awards or other major film awards. The Full Moon Creative Lab project was led by the Slovak scriptwriter Michaela Sabo. Exhibitions, literary evenings, and also jazz concerts were part of the rich festival program. Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, screened with live music, was of particular interest. Łukasz L.U.C Rostkowski with the Rebel Babel Film Orchestra presented the film Peasants (dir. DK Welchman, H. Welchman, 2023) based on W. Reymont.
The festival was visited by many important domestic and foreign creators. Two years ago, Oliver Stone was here to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. This year, the award went to the prominent Hungarian director Béla Tarr. A Hungarian Film Day was held, and Estonia and Poland had their promos. Another native of Cluj–Napoca, the iconic Romanian actor Florin Piersic, after whom the cinema is named and about whom a large exhibition of his work was held during the festival, received a special award from the festival director (as did the famous star Maria de Medeiros) for his contribution to world cinema. The exceptional documentarian Andrei Ujica, the famous Romanian actress Emilia Dobrin, and the influential film critic Valerian Sava were also awarded. All of them participated in TIFF.24 and were besieged by both audiences and the media. We should happily acknowledge that festival information was not only on the Internet, but, for local viewers, a daily full-colour A4 format newsletter Aperitiff, with a lot of interviews, reflections, and information about the daily events at the festival. Not only were there plenty of films and audiences at TIFF.24, but also seven juries and, to the filmmakers’ delight, many of the awards were subsidized with financial rewards.
The festival commemorated the 100th anniversary of FIPRESCI not only in the catalogue, but also got us—the jurors—to present films, and we briefly talked about the history of FIPRESCI in the student cultural centre. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised by the attendance.
During the closing gala at the National Theatre in Cluj-Napoca, British director Mahdi Fleifel’s To a Land Unknown took home the Transilvania Trophy, the festival’s €10,000 top prize. The film is an intense drama about two Palestinian refugees living in Athens, caught between petty scams and the hope of a better life in Germany. Amid a climate of despair and moral compromise, one spirals deeper into a cycle of manipulation and exploitation of those around him. “It was more about survival than storytelling. We struggled for nearly ten years to make it,” said Fleifel, adding about the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict: “The problem in Palestine is not the Palestinians, it’s the occupation—and that must end.”
The FIPRESCI jury evaluated 8 documentary films in the section Romanian Film Days. Their level was relatively even, and after a long discussion, we decided to award our prize to the experimental film Merman, directed by Ana Lungu, which tells the story of a man who transcends Romanian realities and points to similar fates of people in former socialist arenas.
Socialism had many faces in individual countries during its existence. In the former Czechoslovakia, the freest atmosphere was in the 1960s, which resulted in the creation of extraordinary works in film, which critics called the Czechoslovak New Wave. Perhaps the most benevolent regimes were in Poland and Hungary. This is also evidenced by the film works of many famous filmmakers from both countries. In countries where the regime was intolerant and harsh, personalities similar to the hero of the award-winning Romanian film, after emigration, ceased to exist in the media or in encyclopedias; their works were not allowed to be screened or mentioned—they simply ceased to exist publicly. In Czechoslovakia, there was another category that determined whether a given author could be publicly known or not, and that was their position on the occupation by the Soviet Union in 1968. If one did not agree with the entry of troops, as the occupation was called at the time, one was destined to become unknown to the public. The film Merman is therefore much closer to the understanding of viewers from the former socialist camp, because it depicts much of the life of their country.
I think that our reasoning fully describes the awarding of the prize to this particular work:
“The FIPRESCI Prize goes to a daring and subtle montage film, whose director plunges passionately into archives to investigate personal aspirations and social constraints in Romania between World War II and the early 1990s. The constantly calm and deliberately imperfect female narrative voice contrasts with the surprising and sometimes shocking revelations regarding the film’s obsessive male figure, whose complexity is gradually revealed. The director playfully blends documented reality with constructed fiction, raising significant questions about the captured/produced images, as well as the effect of time on these images. Ana Lungu’s Merman (Triton) is an absorbing and stimulating essay film that viewers cannot forget easily.”
And finally, sad news: Dracula did not come.
By Ladislav Volko
Edited by Birgit Beumers
© FIPRESCI 2025
The FIPRESCI jury at Transylvania International Film Festival 2025