For its 2019 edition, Making Waves celebrated the 30 years since the Revolution of 1989 with a 30-film retrospective of Romanian Cinema’s past 30 years: the largest Romanian film program presented in the U.S. to date. American Romanian Cultural Society (ARCS) and Making Waves – New Romanian Cinema join Northwest Film Forum and SIFF in bringing a selection of ten films from this program to Seattle. Click here for a series overview that covers both NWFF and SIFF’s screenings at their Film Center.*

In the 30 years since the 1989 Romanian Revolution and the fall of Communism, history has been a persistent theme in Romanian cinema. In the 1990s, directors who found themselves freed from the tyranny of censorship rushed out in the open to tell stories from the recent past. In the following two decades, younger directors went back in time on their own terms and came up with a fresh perspective on the communist era. Even when they chronicled the present in sharp slices of life, the dark shadows of the past still haunted their contemporary stories. And then there is the enigma of the Revolution itself, which continues to beg for closure.

Newer films dig into the more distant though equally relevant past, and there is also escapism, mostly in genre formats. But despite its apparent diversity, this  retrospective works best as a history lesson served in the most entertaining form: movies.

* Series passes purchased for SIFF’s half of this series are not transferable to screenings at NWFF.