The 2023 edition of the International Documentary Film Festival DocAviv will take place between May 11- 20th, at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. For this year's edition, Vlad Petri's feature film, "Between Revolutions", was selected by the Israeli organizers. Its first screening will be on May 11th, from 7:15 p.m., at the Cinematheque in Tel Aviv, followed by a question and answer session and a panel dedicated to the use of archive materials in the making of documentaries, with the special participation of Lavinia Braniște, co-writer of the film. The second screening will take place on May 19, from 4:15 p.m., also at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.
The Romanian feature film is one of the 28 titles selected for the main program of the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival 2023, from over 2000 films from around the world, winning the FIPRESCI award.
"Between revolutions" is a film built exclusively from archive materials and mirrors the lives and destinies of two women, Maria and Zahra, one from Romania, the other from Iran, friends and fellow faculty members at the University of Medicine in Bucharest in the 70s. In 1979, when the possibility of political change in Iran becomes a certainty, Zahra returns to her country, taking part in the revolution there, away from her friend. For the next ten years, their only way of communicating is through letters. Framed by two revolutions, their words describe women's struggle to be heard, societies undergoing radical change, and a friendship that cannot be broken.
Director Vlad Petri used archival images and documents, but also elements of fiction, which led to the creation of a hybrid feature film, in which documentary and fiction merge. The letters present in the film are written by Lavinia Braniște and are inspired by letters from the Security archives and the poems of two important writers from Romania and Iran - Nina Cassian and Forugh Farrokhzad.
Vlad Petri is a film director interested in political and social issues. His productions, bordering both documentary and fiction, have been presented at prestigious international film festivals such as Berlin, Rotterdam, Sarajevo or Jihlava. He won three GOPO awards – for Best Debut (2015) for the documentary "Bucharest, where are you?" and Best Documentary Short Film (2021 - "The Deer Passed by Me" and 2022 - "The Same Dream"). His filmography includes: "Between revolutions (2023, feature film), "The same dream" (2021, short film), "The deer passed in front of me" (2020, short film) and "Bucharest, where are you?" (2014, feature film).
Lavinia Braniște works as a translator for children's books. In 2006, she published her first volume of poetry, and in 2016, her first novel, Interior zero, was published, which was awarded the ”Nepotu' lui Thoreau” prize and enjoyed considerable success. Two other novels followed, Sonia raises her hand (2019) and You find when you want (2021), both published by Polirom Publishing House. Her last novel received an award in the Prose category at the ”Sofia Nădejde” Awards Gala for Literature Written by Women.
For tickets and more information: https://www.docaviv.co.il/2023-en/films/between-revolutions/
