Romania to present “Monsters” and “Arrest” at renowned Karlovy Vary Film Festival

The 54th edition of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in Czechia is starting today, with two Romanian feature films also competing “Monsters”, by Marius Olteanu, and “Arrest”, by Andrei Cohn.

“Arrest” directed by film director Andrei Cohn, has been included in the East of the West competition, which is dedicated to the debut filmmakers who have one or two feature films shot from Eastern and Central Europe, Balkans, Greece, the former Soviet Union states and the Middle East.

“Arrest” is the story of an architect, Dinu Neagu (played by Alexandru Papadopol), who is arrested in August 1983 while on holiday with his wife and two children on beach of nudists near an industrial area on the Black Sea seaside. He is arrested and taken to Bucharest police office, where he is imprisoned in a cell together with Vali, a collaborator of the Security Service (Iulian Postelnicu).

Born in 1972, director Andrei Cohnis mostly known in Romania for his career in advertising and for directing several short films, “Before and After 22/12/1989” (2008), “The Mother of God from the ground-floor” (2010) and “Family Pictures” (2012).

“Monsters” directed by Marius Olteanu, has been shortlisted in the non-competitive section Another View of the Festival, which presents every year a selection of the most remarkable contemporary movies.

“Monsters” has been the only Romanian film presented at the Berlin Film Festival this year, where it was awarded with the audience prize granted by Tagesspiegel. The film features one day from the life of a newly married couple that their family, friends seem to love when they are together, but judge and reject then when they are on their own, due to their needs and options in life.

Marius Olteanu is both director and screen writer of the movie, with Judith State (“Sieranevada”), Cristian Popa, Alexandru Potocean and Şerban Pavlu (“Scarred Hearts) starring.

Marius Olteanu’s last two shorts, “Tie” (2015), which was the starting point feature debut “Monsters”, and “No man’s land”(2017) were selected in more than 30 festivals – Busan IFF, Tallinn POFF, Namur FIFF, TIFF etc. Marius Olteanu is also a published photographer and an advertising director.

The 2019 edition of Karlovy Vary Film Festival is due June 28-July 6.

A film directed by Romanian director Radu Jude has won the Karlovy Vary international film festival last year.

Another Romanian film, “Box” directed by Florin Serban was awarded FIPRESCI title at the 50^th edition of Karlovy Vary film festival in 2015.