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Where Elephants Go (Unde Merg Elefantii?)

Where Elephants Go (Unde Merg Elefantii?)

Where Elephants Go (Unde Merg Elefantii?)

Dir. Catalin Rotaru, Gabi Virginia Sarga
115 min

Romanian Film Festival 2024

Saturday, November 9 at 5:00pm | FREE

Presented by Heritage Organization of Romanians in Minnesota (HORA).

ABOUT THE FILM

Whimsical, funny and touching, Romanian directorial duo Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catalin Rotaru’s film nevertheless doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. Romanian directorial duo return to the spotlight, which marks a sudden change in their tone and has landed them a spot in as many as three sidebars at the 23rd Transilvania International Film Festival: the official competition, the Romanian Days competition and the Smart7 Festival Network strand and it will be presented at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival in November.

The movie seems to cater for an audience eager for a lighter touch than the usual bleak, drab and morose Romanian drama. By telling a story about three characters at a certain place in their lives, where they seemingly have nothing more to lose, Sarga and Rotaru’s sophomore directorial effort playfully points the finger at society’s expectations. The film also talks about how we lie to ourselves and to others in order to make life more bearable. “In case of problems, use fiction or wear a colorful, crocheted hat,” the film seems to say.

ABOUT THE ROMANIAN FILM FESTIVAL

The Romanian Film Festival is produced and presented by the Heritage Organization of Romanians in Minnesota (HORA).

The theme of the festival this year is Through the Looking Glass. Lewis Carroll used this metaphor in his writing to describe an unfamiliar or abnormal setting or situation. The phrase can be used to describe a world that suddenly appears unfamiliar, as if things were turned upside down, similar to looking out from inside a mirror to find a world that’s both recognizable and yet turned inside-out. It is like a confusing looking glass world or a mysterious looking glass philosophy.

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear is also a well-known phrase that makes us aware of how reflected images are different from the real world. When we look at ourselves in the mirror or at things through a magnifying glass we see a reversed or enlarged version of reality. That is, in a way, what movies do: project it onto the screen into a distorted, sometimes strange parallel world. 

After the fall of communism in 1989, a Romanian New Wave cinema emerged as an austere, realist, and minimalist, often accompanied by black humor type of film. It is an art form that has received a lot of acclaim, almost every year being awarded at prestigious international film festivals. Still, watching a Romanian movie is not a “sit back and relax” type of experience. It requires the audience to do an intense intellectual and emotional exercise and ask themselves questions that might not always get answers. It might be intriguing, controversial, irreverent, shocking, funny, a tragedy and dark comedy at the same time. The world portrayed in them is most often the opposite of normal or what is expected, and the characters’ personalities are hard to decipher. They are convoluted and tormented, enigmatic and insecure in their relationships and self-search. They are portrayed as if through a magnifying glass, as if in a twilight zone, leaving it to the viewer to try to make their own inferences.

We hope you will find this year’s films interesting and will come back for more next year. We will continue the tradition and hope to grow in audience. Making Romanian culture, though its many forms, known to the American public is HORA’s mission.

This year’s edition has been possible through a grant from Minnesota Humanities Center and the generous support of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. This work is funded in part by MHC with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

This year we partnered with the MSP Film Society to offer you amazing films in state of the art cinemas. The festival will take place between November 8-10, in person at The Main Cinema, 115 SE Main St, Minneapolis, MN 55414. All movies are in Romanian language with English subtitles.

Film Details

Program: Romanian Film Festival
Release Year: 2024
Runtime: 115 min
Country/Region: Romania
Language: Romanian
Tags: Comedy, Drama, Dramedy

Cast/Crew

Director: Catalin Rotaru, Gabi Virginia Sarga
Producer: Gabi Suciu
Cinematographer: Adrian Paduretu
Screenwriter: Catalin Rotaru, Gabi Virginia Sarga
Editor: Stefan Azaharioaie
Principal Cast: Carina Lapusneanu, Stefan Mihai, Alice Cora Mihalache

Sponsor for Where Elephants Go (Unde Merg Elefantii?)

Showtimes

The Main 3

Saturday, November 9th