Kanopy (Firm)

In the days leading up to Christmas, a married man forces himself to choose between his wife and his mistress. A sharply observed, deeply felt drama from director Radu Muntean (Boogie), showcasing the strengths of current Romanian cinema in its beautifully calibrated performances, expert craftsmanship, and dazzling technical mastery.

At the beginning of 1991, after the Romanian Revolution, an old barber meets by chance his former torturer who came in for a shave. Quickly, the parts are inverted though the client refuses to acknowledge that he has been recognized. As the barber holds the razor against the client's neck, he gets scarier and scarier wishing for revenge and payback. Will the victim spare his former torturer?

A monumental achievement, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU tracks the rise and fall of the infamous Romanian dictator through his own propaganda footage. Director Andrei Ujica crafted over 1,000 hours of official state broadcasts and intimate home movies into a tour-de-force that depicts how Ceausescu created the country in his own image, regardless of the cost to its citizens. His rapid ascent to power is aided by parliamentary meetings and...

One of the most acclaimed directorial debuts of recent years, and the winner of the coveted FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, Bogdan Mirică’s DOGS is the most haunting and gruesome Western to come out of Europe in decades. DOGS begins with an elegant tracking shot through a marshland near the Black Sea, eventually landing on a severed foot, bobbing in the swampy water. Soon after, we meet Roman (Dragoș...

A hunt for buried treasure sends two men on a surprising comic caper in this Cannes prize-winning charmer.

This Romanian drama follows Paul, a director of some renown, who is suffering from an imaginary medical condition and a real crisis of faith. He has two weeks left to shoot his latest opus; but is for some unknown reason plagued with doubt. Perhaps it has to do with his actress, with whom he’s having an affair, or the constraints of Chinese cuisine, or Michelangelo Antonioni, or something in between. Official Selection at the **Toronto International...

A young nun sneaks out of her monastery to attend an urgent matter but never makes it back. A police detective's investigation uncovers revelations.

In 1981, chalk slogans written in uppercase letters started appearing in public spaces in the Romanian city of Botoşani. They demanded freedom, alluded to the democratic developments taking place in Romania’s socialist sister countries or simply called for improvements in the food supply. The culprit was Mugur Călinescu, a teenager who was still at school at the time and whose case is documented in the files of the Romanian secret police. Theatre...

Michael Haneke’s futuristic vision follows a global cataclysm, Anne (Academy Award Nominee Isabelle Huppert) and her family set out for a safe haven at their holiday home. But, when they arrive, the home is already occupied by other survivors. Their hopes for safety are immediately dashed by a violent tragedy, which serves as a lesson to take nothing for granted and expect the worst in this new, harsh landscape. Accompanied by a fierce young boy...

A mesmerizing new masterwork from Cristi Puiu (*The Death of Mr. Lazarescu*), AURORA is a murder mystery turned on its head. Inside a non-descript apartment, a man and a woman converse, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping in the next room. Behind a line of abandoned trailers, on the outskirts of Bucharest, the same man waits for something or someone to arrive. At a nearby factory, he collects two hand-made firing pins secretly...