The Romanian film Al Doilea Joc (The Second Game), directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, was selected in the Forum section of this year’s edition of Berlinale festival.

The 44th edition of Berlinale Forum provides an overview of independent, artistic filmmaking with a disregard for convention, screening 28 world and eight international premieres from every continent.

According to the festival’s website, the Romanian director “draws on a strikingly original form for his film Al doilea joc (The Second Game): together with his father, who worked as a football referee during the Ceausescu regime, he provides a commentary for the grainy VHS footage of a match between top teams Dinamo and Steaua as the game threatens to shudder to a halt in the driving snow, the viewer is left wondering how an impartial referee was able to survive in a one-party state”.

Some of the other films selected for the Forum section are The Airstrip by Heinz Emigholz, Butter on the Latch directed by Josephine Decker, Los Angeles by Damian John Harper, She's Lost Control by German director Anja Marquardt and The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq by Guillaume Nicloux.

This year’s edition of the Berlinale film festival will take place between February 6 and February 16.

Corneliu Porumboiu is one of the best known Romanian directors and a representative of the new wave in Romania’s film industry.

He was awarded the Camera d’Or debut prize at the Cannes festival in 2006 for the film ‘A fost sau n-a fost’, while in 2009, he received the Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section for the film ‘Politist, adjectiv’ (Police, adjective).

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com