Last month, Romania’s second city transformed itself into the national laughter capital, courtesy of the Cluj International Comedy Festival, a celebration of comic film. Festival director Horatiu Dan and programmer Bogdan Besliu looked back over this year’s festival and shared their highlights with Business Review. And what’s more, the film festival comes to Bucharest to give us another good laugh. The event will take place between December 5 to December 7 at Cinema Union, according to Business-Review.eu.The Cluj International Comedy Festival involved 147 film projections in nine different locations, the screening of 192 movies from 38 countries across four continents and over 100 special guests who entertained the public for ten days, as well as jazz concerts, theater, dance and parties, all put together by over 200 organizers, both festival employees and volunteers.
“We wanted a diverse selection in terms of genres, and the best word to describe this year’s movie selection was diversity: we had musicals, black comedy, pure comedy, absurd comedy and black humor from absurd situations. The festival aimed to show the public that comedy isn’t a movie genre where you just go to laugh, but a more complex genre”, said Besliu told.
He recommends four movies in particular, one of which took two awards at the festival for best film and best script, Jacky in the Women’s Kingdom, directed by Riad Sattouf, in which society is turned upside down and the rulebook goes out of the window. Italian production I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Sydney Sibilia) comes under the pure comedy label, and draws on several well placed clichés. Documentary Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (Mike Myers), and Pride (Matthew Warchus), one of the best movies of the year, round out Besliu’s selection. Dan also praises Pride, for which the Florin Piersic Cinema was fully booked out after the festival closing gala.
