The Oak is an absorbing, complicated black comedy about Romania at the end of the Ceauşescu regime. A young schoolteacher named Nela embarks on a spiritual journey after the death of her father, a former government official, whose ashes she takes to toting in a coffee jar. On her wanderings through grotesque and often violent surroundings, she meets Mitică. The couple, like Tristan and Isolde at the gates of the Orient, cannot live out their love according to the rules. A series of events – floods, pollution, Mitică’s arrest, military maneuvers and massacres – split up our heroes, and reveal a context in which nothing works properly and everything seems to be falling apart. (Lucian Pintilie, Romania/France, 1992, 105 min.) In Romanian with English subtitles
The new 4K restoration has been made with the support of Fundația9 Romania through the Lucian Pintilie Cinema Fund
Actress Maia Morgenstern in Person
The special screening hosted by Lightbox Film Center in Philadelphia on March 13 enjoys the support of Fundația9 Romania and actress Maia Morgenstern.
The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution
A retrospective initiated by the Making Waves Film Festival & Cinema Projects
Originated at Film Forum New York (Nov 15-26, 2019)
Produced by Corina Șuteu and Oana Radu
Curated by Mihai Chirilov, Corina Șuteu, and David Schwartz (Cinema Projects)
The U.S. Tour is made possible by the support of Adrian Ghenie, Șerban Savu and Galeria Plan B, Moebius Gallery, Alexandre Almajeanu and Gentica Foundation, Dacin Sara, and numerous individual donors