Manasse film screening (dir. Jean Mihail, Romania 1925, 85’) with live music by Danaga / Romania
Lecture preceding the film: Mihai Fulger (Romanian Film Archive)

Lelia, a young Jewess from Bucharest, falls in love with a Christian called Matei. Her grandfather Manasse living in a shtetl and her laicised parents living in Bucharest strongly oppose that relationship. Leila succumbs to the pressure of her relatives and leaves the man she loves. She also agrees to marry a Jew. On the day of the wedding, however, everything changes…

Powerful, dramatic classic film by the great star and father of the Romanian silent cinema, Jean Mihail, based on a theatre play that had been forbidden for a long time due to its “delicate” topic. Considering the anti-Jewish atmosphere in Romania in the first half of the 20th century, Manasse is also a brave masterpiece, showing the tension between cultural conformity and separatism in the Jewish community at the beginning of the 20th century. The film can also be interpreted as an early appeal for religious tolerance.

Danaga (Daniel Aga) – – musician living and working in Cluj, Romania, combining in his work jazz, funk, hip-hop, techno and Romanian folk music. Playing various instruments and using sampling techniques, he tries to push the boundaries between these genres. He began his musical adventure in 1998 as a vocalist and guitarist in a rock band. He sold a motorcycle to buy his first computer – which allowed him to search for music in the field of electronics. He has collaborated with many Romanian artists, such as Florin Tarlea, Mihai Pop, Mircea Florian and Subcarpati. He creates soundtracks for theatrical performances and short animated films, and plays live accompanying archival silent films.

Mihai Fulger is a film critic and curator based in Bucharest. He has been active as a film critic since 2002, writing over 1,000 cinema-related articles for cultural and general publications, as well as for websites and blogs, both in Romanian and English. He has been a member of the Film Critics’ Association within the Romanian Filmmakers’ Union (UCIN) and of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) since 2007, as well of the European Film Academy (EFA) since 2018. He has collaborated, mostly as programmer, with various film festivals in Romania since 2007. He served as FIPRESCI Jury member in several major international film festivals (Berlin, Busan, Cluj, Gijón, Stockholm, Warsaw, etc.). His first individual book, “The New Wave in Romanian Cinema”, was awarded in 2007 with the “George Littera” prize of the Film Critics’ Association for the best cinema book. He is one of the founding editors of the “Film” quarterly magazine, published by UCIN since 2013. Since 2012 he has been working for the Romanian National Film Archive (ANF), mostly as a director and programmer of the Romanian Cinematheque in Bucharest. He is currently following a PhD in film studies.

The screening is organised in cooperation with the Romanian Institute of Culture in Warsaw and Romanian National Film Archive.