Romanian director Tudor Giurgiu returns to the United States this month to promote his latest feature film, Libertate/Freedom. Scheduled for May 4-13, the tour starts in Los Angeles, passes through Atlanta, and ends in New York.

The film will be screened as part of the South East European Film Festival in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 4, and then at the European Film Festival in Atlanta on May 11. Both screenings will be followed by extended Q&As with Tudor Giurgiu.

In New York, the Romanian Cultural Institute will join The Alex Fund to support an exclusive screening of Libertate and a meeting with the Romanian director, in an event organized by the well-known American association on May 13. The Alex Fund, an association based in New York, was founded by Leslie Hawke and managed over the years together with his son, the famous actor Ethan Hawke.

Further details are available here.

Tudor Giurgiu’s latest film is inspired by true events and tells a lesser-known story that took place in Sibiu during the 1989 Revolution. Amid the chaos and panic generated by the protests against the regime, a police station in Sibiu becomes the scene of a violent assault that escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, police officers, civilian protesters, and representatives of the secret police. Following a desperate attempt to escape the siege, several men are captured by the Army and accused of being terrorists. 

The film was the big winner of this year’s Gopo Awards, the event awarding the achievements of the Romanian film industry.

Tudor Giurgiu is a director, producer, screenwriter, and cultural entrepreneur, a member of the European Film Academy, and founder and president of the Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF). His directorial debut feature, Love Sick, was selected in the Panorama section of the 2006 Berlinale and awarded in several international festivals. His short Superman, Spiderman or Batman (2011) won Best European Short at the 2012 edition of the European Film Academy Awards. 

Moreover, Giurgiu’s feature Of Snails and Men was awarded at Warsaw International Film Festival and Valladolid International Film Festival. At the same time, Why Me?, an unsettling legal thriller based on a real case of corruption in present-day Romania, premiered in the 2015 Berlinale Panorama.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Romanian Cultural Institute New York)