Rebels with a Cause Competition Best Director

In this unique, melancholic road movie, Romanian director Adrian Sitaru once again collaborates with his regular director of photography, Adrian Silişteanu. Silişteanu creates the illusion that the actors are handing the camera to each other. Each scene is shot from a different character’s perspective, so we only hear voices and see hands or reflections. The camera sometimes blinks or shifts through colourful filters.

After a warm family embrace at their grandmother’s birthday party, the group sets off by boat for Turkey. Their trip is not just for fun: the youngest, Andrei, needs surgery in Istanbul. The 13-year-old boy can sense things, but he cannot see. Their intricately planned voyage takes an unexpected turn when they discover Katerina, a Ukrainian refugee, hiding on their rented boat. She is searching for her parents in Turkey, but her presence there is both risky and illegal.

Preserved memories, fragile and on the verge of vanishing, are pieced together from silent 8 mm reels and staged footage. Along the way, dogs, seagulls, minks, donkeys and horses join this surreal odyssey, which blossoms into a vivid, whimsical and bittersweet fantasy. It culminates in a dance that will linger long after the end credits.

Edvinas Pukšta