One Day in Bucharest

Steps to the Moon

An aspiring astronaut prepares his ship for take-off, plugs in a razor and causes a blackout. In the deep darkness the boy imagines himself meeting the literary characters who have enthralled readers past with their stories of space travel.

Cantemir

Historical adventure film that evokes the figure of the Prince Dimitrie Cantemir. The heroes fight for the manuscript "The History of the Ottoman Empire" and the jewels of the ruler's wife.

Quo vadis homo sapiens

An anthology made up of numerous short films featuring Gopo's Little Man.

Trei mere

One of the primitive people discovered an apple tree but there is a condition: he can pluck apples from it, but only keep every third.

The Seven Arts

The Apprentice Wizard

A short film featuring Galax, the puppet man.

Three Times Bucharest

Three distinct cinematic stories that take place in Bucharest, made by three different directors, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the city's existence

The White Moor

Adapted from a folk legend, it tells the story of a bad-tempered nobleman and his chronically useless younger son - who dreams of being the mythical hero Harap Alb.

Faust XX

A terminally ill professor gets an immoral offer.

A Fantastic Comedy

This blend of comedy and psycho-drama is comprised of two disturbing stories. The first tells the tale of a robot who is set to Earth by his home planet to discover new energy sources. In the second a boy is sent into deep space as part of an inhuman experiment designed to create the perfect human.

The Bet

Based on a 19th century tale, this self-referential fantasy, complete with musical and animated interludes plus a cast of fairytale characters, tells the story of a bet between an old man and a fairy over a bag with two gold coins.

The Story of Love

A sci-fi fairy tale love story adventure about a young boy, who lands in a UFO, and the princess he falls in love with as an adult.

Maria, Mirabella

Two little girls - Maria and Mirabella - go to the woods for a walk and encounter several magical characters, among them a frog with his feet frozen in ice, a fireworm whose shoes keep catching fire, and a butterfly who's afraid of flying. To help their new friends, the girls must carry them to a sorceress who lives deep in the forest.

Behold the Man

Dialogue between a man from Earth and an alien about the advantages and darker sides of earthly civilization.

Brief History

This 1957 Romanian short animation and Cannes Film Festival winner skilfully and with incredible artistic expression manages to condense the entire narrative of human evolutionary theory into a ten minute short film. Not only that, he eerily anticipates the communist triumph of the USSR launching the first man into space by a few years.

A Bomb Was Stolen

A dialogue free Romanian science-fiction spy-comedy that draws upon farce, satire and surrealism as it subversively deconstructs the spy thriller with the protagonist's accidental discovery of a nuclear suitcase bomb and the subsequent fight over ownership between the rival powers of the criminals and the military.