Over the last couple of years, the Moldovan film industry has seen a significant surge in its presence on the international film festival circuit. Driven in part by its National Film Center’s yearly funding sessions and openness to minority co-productions, the growth of its film industry has yielded an impressive spread of films and TV series. More importantly, the majority of its international festival footprint has been laid by non-narrative cinema, and in particular, by women directors (e.g. Olga Lucovnicova’s Berlinale winner MY UNCLE TUDOR).

Employing a broad range of formal language (observational, archive/essay cinema), these films addressed issues that were as relevant to Moldovan society, as they also reflected socio-economic realities manifested well beyond its borders (migration, labour, trans-generational violence etc.). Having glimpsed in the past, alongside our audiences, films such as LOVE IS NOT AN ORANGE or TATA, OWR dedicates an entire program, showcasing the latest works by established or debut Moldovan filmmakers.

The films in our FOCUS MOLDOVA section are as varied in form as they are in subject matter, threaded together by a culturally-specific spirit unique to Moldovan society: the formally-playful scrapbook diary film CONSIDER A TOMATO (Marina Sulima’s exploration of the titular fruit’s role as a cultural, culinary staple and market-controlled agricultural asset), the observational ELECTING MS SANTA (Raisa Răzmeriță’s character-driven foray into rural politics and female emancipation), or the poetic family portraiture of LAST LETTERS FROM MY GRANDMA (Olga Lucovnicova’s archeological reflection on family and state, and the trans-generational trauma linking the two).