Cannes Film Festival at Bucharest (24-30 October)

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I must say that I find myself blessed having this great opportunity to watch the films shown at Cannes Film Festival this year. Cristian Mungiu (the Romanian director who won Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival in 2007) came with this amazing idea to bring Cannes Film Festival at Bucharest. And he did it so well all these years as the event is growing year by year.

With Berenice Bejo

The Opening Gala came with a very good, strong and heavy feature directed by Michel Hazanavicius (the director who won Palme d'Or in 2011): The Search.

The action is happening in 1999 during the second War in Chechnya. Four life stories are connected: a 9 years old orphan boy, his sister, a 20 years old Russian soldier and a Human Rights EU representative. Almost as in a documentary, the events are presented accurately, showing the harsh atrocities happened during the Chechnya Second War: the Russian Army and her rough policy, the inhuman killings in Chechnya, the life of the remaining orphans and women and the bureaucracy of EU and ONU in supporting that cause.


The movie was filmed in Georgia, where there is a Chechnyan community.  The angle chosen was to show the reality that happened in Chechnya from both sides: the winners and the oppressed. A very clever way to put the story in images. The film ends in a fondue!
In Bucharest, the film was applauded ten minutes and received a very good eco. At Cannes heard that the Russian journalists whistled the movie, probably because they do not want to accept what happened in Chechnya in 1999.

Me and Michel Hazanavicius at Cannes Film Festival



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