Marin Apostol

Last week, at Iaşi, in Romania, people had the chance to discover new and intriguing films at the second edition of International Iasi Film Festival. Top prize winner was Georgian-director Levan Koguashvili's Street Days. Koguashvili, who previously directed The Debt, the 2006 Sundance Film Festival short, said his debut feature is about a strange and a very sad generation.

The World According to Ion B. tells the story of Ion Barladeanu, a 62 years old homeless man. He sleeps on a filthy mattress at the end of a garbage chute of a bloc on Calea Mosilor, in exchange for sorting the garbage of the landlords. When he was young, Ion was dreaming about becoming a film director. In the 70's he started to create collages that he refers to as "my films".

One who's familiar with Romanian cinema most probably will discover that WebSiteStory is not like anything else made by a Romanian director.The entire film was shot during only 12 days, in Bucharest, and it was made with a budget of 120.000 euros. It didn't work from a screenplay and the actors were mostly amateurs.

He's 35 years-old. He lived for four years in Vietnam and one year in Dubai. He likes sports; in 2007, he ran in the Dubai marathon. He graduated the Romanian National Film School. He's both: a director and a screenwriter. This is Bogdan Mustata, an almost anonymous filmmaker until he won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Int. Film Festival for his short film, A Good Day For A Swim.

3 out of 300 films might not seem like a lot, but from the nation that produces less than 30 features a year, it's plenty. There are three Romanian films being featured in Toronto this year, one is a co-production and the other pair are split among the Contemporary World Cinema and Visions programme.