Masterclass: THOMAS CIULEI

Director, producer and DoP, Thomas Ciulei was present with his films in several editions of the festival. The Craziness Of The Heads was screened at ASTRA FILM FESTIVAL 2006 in the special section Romania – Retrospective standing under the motto "A country without documentary films is like a family a family without a photo album". He studied photography at School of Visual Arts in New York and film at  New York University Film School Munich. His films were selected and wqon awards in numerous festivals, such as : International Filmfestival Berlin, Rotterdam FF, Museum of Modern Art NY, Cinema dei Popoli Firenze, Dok Leipzig, DocLisboa, Cinéma du réel Paris, Nyon, Kalamata International Film Festival, Ljubljana IFF, Thessaloniki IFF, Dok München a.o.

The discussion with Thomas Ciulei will start from his film ”Face Mania” (1997), a film about Lena Constante, an innocent victim of the struggle over power within the Romanian Communist Party, who was arrested in January 1948 and involved in the trial of Lucretiu Patrascanu. After long years of detention (she was relased only in 1961), sole survivor of the trial, she writes a shocking book, "Silent Escape", which is the basis of this film and which constitutes an amazing testimony about the will to survive, in prison, escaping through creation. A lesser known documentary in the filmography of Thomas Ciulei, worth all attention.