Full schedule and tickets available
TAIFAS - Balkan film and culture festival announces its full program and ticket sales. The first edition, "New Beginnings," taking place from November 5-12, 2023, at Cinema Victoria Timișoara, presents 14 of the latest Balkan productions of the year to the general audience. These films will have their Romanian premiere and were awarded at prestigious festivals across Europe.
Therefore the audience is invited to discover the selection of this edition, curated from over 80 films on www.taifasfestival.ro.
Tickets can be purchased online from the festival's website or from the Cinema Victoria Timișoara. Additionally, film enthusiasts will benefit from a discount: when adding 7 tickets to the cart, they will only pay for 5.
Cătălin Olaru, the artistic director of the TAIFAS festival, a film critic and curator, shares insights about the films in the program: "At Taifas, we are not afraid of competition from the commercial cinema: we have superheroes right here at home, in the Balkans. In 'Safe Place', 'Pelikan', and 'A Cup of Coffee and New Shoes On', we meet three autumnal protagonists who fully embrace the superpower of spleen. The Rohmer-esque touch, a kind of kryptonite with a plus sign, has deeply touched Umut Subaşı, the director of 'Almost Entirely a Slight Disaster', the most Parisian film set in Istanbul of all time. While other superheroes fight to save the world, Ivan from 'A Good Driver' just wants to save himself, while the kids from 'Carbide' save humor abundantly despite unfavorable circumstances. Not to mention that the Taifas superheroes enjoy the ability to time travel. Although the easiest direction seems to be backwards, a forward-looking perspective is not absent from the landscape. 'Lost Country' and 'The Summer of 91' unearth a time that is easy to forget if you haven't lived through it yourself. Europe brings us back to a corporate present that is equally unappealing, while 'Balada' and 'Have You Seen This Woman?' provide a welcome infusion of hope: in 2023, feminism is not just discussed, but lived. Finally, 'Embryo Larva Butterfly', 'Once Upon a Time in The Future: 2121', and 'White Plastic Sky' propel us into an apocalyptic yet vibrant future, further evidence that Balkan cinema, with or without superheroes, is alive and well."
The official opening of the Taifas festival will take place on Sunday, November 5, at 18:30, at Banatul Philharmonic in Timișoara. The event will feature a concert by Simion Bogdan-Mihai, a collector of traditional music, and the "Lăutarii de Mătase" ensemble. The musical experience will be enhanced by the young talents from the "Crescut pe Muzică" ensemble. Tickets for the concert are available online at www.iabilet.ro and in the network iabilet.ro/retea.
More information about the program, events and tickets: Facebook Taifas Festival or www.taifasfestival.ro.
The Balkan film and culture festival is the result of a collaboration between two organizations passionate about art cinema, particularly Balkan cinema: Contrasens Cultural Association and Bad Unicorn.
Financiers: AFCN, Ministry of Culture through the Timișoara Projects Center.
Parteneri de proiect: Archeia Tainion tis Ellados Tainiothiki (Grecia), Arte Urbana Collectif (Bulgaria), Asociația CRIES și Festivalul de gastronomie artizanală „La Pas”, Bacaci Sjenki / Shadow Casters (Croația), Cinema Arta Cluj, Cinema Victoria Timișoara, Cinemateca Portuguesa (Portugalia), CinEd, Casa Corpului Didactic Timiș, Filarmonica Banatul, FITT, Hotel Excelsior, iabilet.ro, Institutul Francez, Librăria La Două Bufnițe, Sakarya Film University (Turcia), Universitatea de Vest Timișoara
Media partners: Guerrilla Radio, Agerpres, Happ.ro, Observator Cultural, Stiri de Timișoara, Metropolis newspaper