28 March 2023

The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters directed by Cătălina Tesăr (NEC Alumna, anthropologist) and Dana Bunescu (film and sound editor) will be screened at the 16th edition of the One World Romania documentary and human rights film festival, which will take place in Bucharest from March 28 to April 9, 2023. The screening will take place on Sunday, April 9, at 6 PM, at Arcub (84-90 Lipscani), in the presence of Cătălina Tesăr and Dana Bunescu.

The film, for whose documentation the study carried out by Dr. Tesăr during the 2019/ 2020 Ștefan Odobleja fellowship at New Europe College played an essential role, had its world premiere in 2022 in Sarajevo. “The byzantine intricacies of weddings, dowries, marriages and inheritances among the Roma communities of rural Romania”, as Neil Young puts it in a review for Screen Daily, are masterfully presented through direct observation and interviews. The film delves into the fascinating universe of a close Roma community from Transilvania where families arrange and break up marriages according to wealth and birth status, in a way reminding of old European aristocracy. Like a fly on the wall, the camera breaks into the intimacy of a couple who struggle to bring forth a son to inherit the family’s badge, the chalice.

Upcoming screening:

2 April 2023, Making Waves, New York
17th Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema NYC | MakingWaves (filmetc.org)

9 April 2023, One World Romania, Bucharest
One World Romania

Past screenings & Awards:

March 2023, Royal Anthropological Film Festival RAI FILM Festival
RAI FILM Festival | The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters

November 2022, Eastern Neighbors Film Festival, Haga
THE CHALICE. OF SONS AND DAUGHTERS by Catalina Tesar, Dana Bunescu | Eastern Neighbours Film Festival (enff.nl)

October 2022, Astra Film Festival, Sibiu
Winner of the Best Romanian Documentary Award

August 2022, Sarajevo Film Festival
World premiere