THE QUEER NOW SECTION HAS GIVEN A VOICE TO A DARING ROMANIAN FILMMAKER

QUEER NOW STRIVES TO GIVE THE SPOTLIGHT TO EMERGING FILMMAKERS FROM CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE, AMONG MORE ESTABLISHED NAMES.

“We want to give space to topics which are still suppressed in some countries, and which require great courage to talk about,” the section’s dramaturge Jana Čížkovská explained.

Eugen Jebeleanu, the only openly gay filmmaker in Romania, certainly does not lack this kind of courage, whether in his filmmaking, theater directing, poetry, or queer activism. He brought his debut feature Poppy Field, which won Best Direction and the Audience Award at the Transilvania International Film Festival this summer, to Prague IFF – Febiofest.

The drama is based on real events – the violent police interruption at a screening of The Kids Are All Right. “Our film talks about freedom of speech – and about why it’s so important to keep making political films,” said the director, who came to Prague together with his set designer Velica Panduru. Both filmmakers made the most of their stay in Prague, before heading back to Romania for a special screening of the film at the cinema where the attack happened, and where their film was shot.